Asylum
by darkNnerdy
Summary: He is sin personified, wicked and inked, cruelty always at the tip of his tongue. Black wings grace his back, and blood stains his hands. She's the poison he wants to consume, but can she survive?
1. Chapter 1

_**SM owns it. **_

**Ham and Satan own my heart. Thank you ladies. Any and all mistakes are mine.**

**This story contains elements of the supernatural. While I have done my research, I am also creating things from severals myths and taking liberties of my own with this story. This is not a fic about Heaven, but is about Hell and my fascination with the creatures that, may or may not dwell inside. Remember this is fiction. **

**First chapter is in 3rd person only. The rest is Bella's POV.**

**There will be violence, gore and horror. This is M rated so if any of the above rattles you, or makes you uncomfortable, thanks for reading this far. See ya. **

**Asylum **

**Chapter One**

Black wings flutter under a long grey coat as he sits in the shadows and watches her.

There is a shiver up his spine, crawling and snaking its way under his skin. The only indication of what's happening around them. Around the bubble he's placed her in.

"I drew you a picture." Her tiny little legs carry her all the way to the corner of her yard. Big brown eyes find his as he smiles down at her, taking the picture she drew.

He observes her for a moment. Her wide smile, framed by dimples set in chubby cheeks. She looks so much like the woman inside.

The woman whose blood is staining the walls and soaking their cream colored sofa.

Her mother.

He could protect her, but he'd much rather sit outside with Bella. Watching her play, hearing her laughter.

Even with a heart as dark as night and as cold as snow, the small girl warms him. She's an enigma. So small and fragile, yet the strongest person he's ever met.

She's a contradiction.

She shouldn't be able to survive, not with him, but she does.

"Do you like it, Masen?" She asks, tugging at his slacks, annoyed that he isn't paying attention to her.

"I do." His eyes drift to the sliding glass door of the house as blood sprays across it, and he takes her into his arms, walking them to the swings.

He fights the urge to turn around and enjoy the sight before him.

"Do you think mommy will like it?" Her hands make fists on his jacket, and he knows she can sense what's happening. He can feel it within her, the unease, the tension.

"I think she'll love it." He brushes her wavy hair out of her face, his skin connecting with hers and easing her mind.

It's a gift he doesn't use often, something he shares with his brother. Something forbidden with mortals.

He's supposed to follow the code. Rules set in place centuries ago to protect them. But Masen rarely does as he's told, especially when breaking the rules is so much fun. When breaking them means he gets to keep Bella.

This is another part he enjoys, the collecting of the souls. Taking what belongs to him and earning the approval of his father.

The only downside is the girl. A girl he can't refuse. A girl he's bound to.

"We're going to play a game." Slowly he removes his coat, letting it fall to the ground as his wings shift, spreading wide.

"What kind of game?" She turns her head, but he blocks her, not wanting her to see the people murdering her mother.

He's cruel, he's planning to be cruel to her, but not yet. Not now. Her seeing the murder, the violence taking place could ruin everything he's planned for them.

"One day, far far away, you are going to meet a prince." His crooked smile shines as his hands grip the chains of the swing.

"A prince!" Bella claps as he swings her high, smiling as she leans her head back and looks at him with bright innocent eyes.

For now he blocks his darkened thoughts of her, enjoying her youth, appreciating it.

For now he has to protect her, keep her away from the things attacking her mother and brutally ripping her apart and scattering the pieces for Bella to find later.

He couldn't stop it. He didn't want to. She needs to find her. Even as a child, it was her destiny, her future, his.

"A very handsome prince." Masen grins as his wings lift, shielding them from the screams inside.

"And we're gonna get married." She giggles, kicking her legs as he swings her. She doesn't have a care in the world, only the comfort Masen brings.

"Do you trust me, Bella?" His eyes flash to hers, revealing an icy green. Her favorite color.

"Yep!"

"Then close your eyes. Don't open them until I tell you." He kisses the top of her head, takes her hands in his and covers her eyes. "Don't peek."

"I'm not peeking! Promise." She nods as he walks in front of her, taking one last look at the child he's guarded since the day she was born.

He pulls a small locket from his shirt pocket. In it is a picture of her mother. Something he knew she would cherish.

As Bella counts he places it around her neck, whispering a promise to watch over her until she's ready for him.

In an instant, he is gone from her side and into the house, his wings vibrating as his feet stick to the blood covering the floor.

"Did you enjoy yourselves?" He couldn't see the figures inside the house, by choice. He grew up around creatures like this. Faceless horrors. Nightmares.

He sees them every day in hell, walking along the dank corridors, making their way to see the king. To bow down to leather shoes and a throne not meant for them.

He doesn't want to see them here. Not when he looks at Renee. Someone who reminds him so much of his Bella.

Instead he waits for them to leave, knowing his presence makes them uncomfortable; frightened.

He smiles when they scatter, leaving only echoes of their scrambling escape.

"You really left a mess." He shakes his aching head as he surveys the damage left behind.

There isn't much of Renee left. Her skin was torn and shredded, hair ripped out in chunks.

It's a scene he's created himself. One he will create again. Taking a soul can be simple, clean and cut, right from the book. He prefers the feeling of his victims flesh as it tears under his nails, and the smell of their blood as it cools against his face drives him.

No one has ever said he couldn't play with his victims.

Even knowing this will devastate Bella, he still take pleasure in the carnage. It is his way, his lifestyle.

"Masen I counted so high but you never..." His blood runs cold as she skips into the room.

He's gone from her eyes immediately, cloaking himself in the power his wings bring him. Letting them take away his pain at her seeing her so devastated.

"Mommy?"

He listens to her sobs, her screams filling the small living room as she tries to wake her mother.

He listens and waits for the last beat of the woman's heart. He knows she's holding on for her daughter. He respects it. He doesn't want to leave Bella either.

Not like this.

"Her sacrifice is for you." His eyes turn cold and his wings grow blacker as he readies himself.

Rolling up his sleeves he moves forward, watching Bella shiver from his presence as he whispers in Renee's ear.

"She'll be safe." He promises as the last thrum of her heart gives up it's battle.

A single kiss to her cool lips releases her soul into his, giving him power.

He stands shivering, his wings spread wide, as another feather grows black as coal.

With one last look at Bella, his wings wrap him in a tight embrace as he fades away, taking the soul of her mother with him.

**If you are still with me, thank you! This story has been in the works for more than two years, and while it's hit many bumps in the road, I could no longer let it sit in my docs. **

**Reviews for Masen? **


	2. Chapter 2

**SM owns it.**

**Ham and Satan own me. They are everything. **

**Any and all mistakes are mine.**

**Asylum**

**Chapter Two **

"So, we have six classes together and lunch. That's not bad." Angela looks over my schedule for the first semester of our senior year.

This has been our ritual since freshman year. Coffee and gossip. Before that it was phone calls and summer sleepovers.

We've had every class together since I moved to Forks when I was six. We've been best friends for just as long. Something about the one class missing bothers me more than I admit to her.

That one single class makes me nervous as hell.

"Are you sure?" I snatch my paper from her and compare them side by side. My free hand grabbing my locket as I scan them once again.

"It's just one class, Bells. And it's the last one of the day, so we'll see each other right after." I know she's trying to console me, but I see the disappointment written all over her face.

"How do you not have Mr. Banner for AP biology?" Something feels wrong about it. Like it was done on purpose.

"I have enough credits for it, I guess." She shrugs as I look over the words on her paper.

History. She's always been more interested than I have, but I can't shake the feeling that someone did this.

"You're picking me up for the first day, right?" She waves her hand in front of my face and I blink.

"Of course. Don't I always?"

"So…" I tune her out as soon as she starts rambling about reading assignments and clothes. I'm not the least bit interested in either.

I people watch instead. Daydreaming about leaving this town and the memories behind. Wanting a real fresh start. I love my dad, but even his face reminds me of the things I want to forget.

"Are you even paying attention to me?"

"Yes." My eyes snap to hers and I can see her doubt by the quirk of her eyebrow, but the twitching of her lips lets me knows she's not too annoyed. "Okay I wasn't, but…"

"There is always a but with you. Did you see some hot guy out there?" She cranes her neck to see what I was looking at just as I choke on my coffee. "What the hell, Bella?"

She pushes a handful of napkins toward me as I spot something that resembles wings disappear into the alley across from us.

"Did you see that?" I ask leaning over our tiny table and looking out the window of the coffee shop, but it's gone.

"A hot guy?" Angela takes a sip of her coffee, rolling her eyes at me, and I see it again. Just a shadow. A flicker of something as it moves around the mouth of the alley. "No I missed him."

The hairs on the back of my neck stand. I shiver.

"I could have sworn I saw something." I set down my book and push my chair back. "There is something out there. Just look." I point across the street, but she doesn't look.

I squint my eyes and watch the shadow move, knowing even if I can't see it, it sees me.

"Didn't Charlie teach you not to go into dark alleys?"

"He did. But when have I ever listened?" I wink at her as I gather my things, stuffing them into my messenger back. "Are you coming?"

"If we get mugged or kidnapped, I'm telling Charlie I had nothing to do with this." She chugs the last bit of her coffee and slams the paper cup down. "Your adventures are gonna get us in trouble one day." I smile mischievously at her, ignoring the small memory that tries to play in my head.

Something telling me not to go out there.

"Stop being a baby and come on." I pull her out of her chair and make my way toward the door. "It'll only take a minute. Then we can come back and you can finish your quiz to see if Ben loves you or not."

"I should just let the kidnapper take you." She huffs.

"How do you know he won't take you?" I ask as we make our way across the street. I grab the small locket around my neck and squeeze it.

"You _are_ scared." Angela accuses, stopping just at the mouth of the alley.

"No, I'm not." I shove the necklace back under my shirt and grab her hand. "You can go back if you want." The lights inside the alley dim and flicker until they go out completely, making us both jump.

"And find your body later? Yeah right." She moves closer to me, her chest almost pressing against my back as darkness consumes us. "I don't like this."

"You never do. Now hush so I can listen." She sighs but follows me into the alley until it becomes so dark she uses the wall for support instead of me.

I can hear a faint fluttering of wings and I swallow, wanting more than anything to turn and run.

"I don't remember it being this dark out," she whispers.

"It's wasn't." I step in something wet, but I refuse to look down. I dig my fingers into the old bricks and push myself along.

I try to pull every ounce of courage I can out of my pounding heart, praying Angela can't hear it in the silence around us. I can't help it though, it's not the not knowing that is freaking me out. It's the fact that this is familiar. The sounds, the air, the feeling of dread as it builds under my skin.

"We should go back, Bella," she hisses. That's when I feel something brush against me. It was light as a feather, but I felt it.

"Wait." I stop. Angela slams into my back and grabs my shirt to steady us. "Did you feel that?"

"All I felt was my boobs hitting your back. Jesus that really hurt. Next time warn me," she whines as it brushes past me again, this time I can feel it under my skin. Like it's trying to bury itself inside of me.

"Tell me you didn't feel that?" I try to see around us, but it's too dark. I can barely see Angela.

"Just the bruise forming on my chest. Thanks for that." I pull her off the wall and take a few more steps, finally out of whatever was wet on the ground.

That small feat has me sighing in relief until I hear the fluttering of wings ahead of us.

"Okay, you had to hear that."

"Yes. I heard the bird. It's a big, scary bird," she laughs, but it sounds bigger than that.

"You're a bitch. Remind me to never take you with me again."

"No problem." Her fingers make their way to my shoulder just as I feel something touching my leg.

"Stop doing that." I hiss, shaking my leg.

"If I don't hold onto you, I'll fall." I feel it again. This time I know exactly what it is.

Feathers.

"Dammit Angela, stop." I reach back, pinching her side and she slaps my hand away.

"What the hell, Bella?"

"You're freaking me out, that's what." I shove her hand away. "Now stop touching me before _I _fall."

"I swear I didn't touch you." Her fingers dig into my hand and I hear her swallow behind me.

"Then who did?"

"Maybe it was just a cat." Angela's voice cracks and her hand trembles in mine as we walk further into the alley. "There's nothing here. Nothing," she repeats over and over.

"There is. I can feel it." I close my eyes and I shut her out, feeling a breeze in my hair and something hot against my neck.

A hand. Familiar yet so foreign.

Fingers against my skin too light to belong to Angela.

"Bella you're scaring me." Angela tugs on my hand, but I ignore her and I move closer.

"Shh." I jerk my head toward her, but I can hear it breathing behind me. I can taste the leather and smoke as it moves closer, but I don't move. I don't breathe.

_Remember what Charlie taught you, Bella. _I tell myself as I ball my fists.

"I'm not scared of you," I whisper into the dark as I feel the world around me buzz and crackle. Like a storm brewing, pulling me into its depth.

"You should be." a masculine voice goads as soft lips press against my neck. His nails drag across my lips and I can feel the alley growing hotter as Angela slips away.

I gasp and open my eyes as the world around me disappears.

Heat surrounds me, licking at my skin, twisting it's way around me. The alley is gone, replaced by glowing red flames that chase up the walls and flickering candles that sit on the floor. There are wet, grey stones below my feet and a mirror holding my reflection and that of a man.

Only he isn't a man. He's not human.

My eyes burn as light floods them. My heart pounds as I remember this place.

"Bella." My name is whispered quietly in my ear and I jump when something grabs my wrist. The touch sears a mark into my skin and makes me whimper. "If you make that noise again, I may not be able to control myself."

I see his lips first before his tongue runs over them, a soft moan escaping his mouth.

_Wake up, Bella. _I struggle to breath as tears prick the corner of my eyes.

"Ignoring me will only upset me. Do you want to upset me, Bella?" His deep voice penetrates every nerve ending in my body and my head snaps up.

Pale green eyes stare into mine... and I know. This memory, a dream I've tried to forget countless times, is playing out in front of me. Even more vivid than before. Only this time with adult eyes.

"You!" The wind whips my hair as blackened wings spread and fan around me. I don't know his name, but the faintest memory tries to shove it's way forward as flames lick at my feet. They move closer as I try to back away.

I make the mistake of looking up. Blood covers the ceiling, thick and rolling in waves as bodies melt together and pull apart.

I cover my mouth, biting back a scream as they stare down at me.

"Scared?" He chuckles and I look away, trying to swallow the bile in my throat.

Hands reach for me, fingers like serpents trying to pull me closer to him.

"I promised I'd be back." His smile is dangerous and his eyes are like ice. His teeth edging over his lips, but they're different, odd. Like fangs. He's beautiful, but I know that face.

Nightmares are made from that jawline. It's like seeing everything I fear with one glance at his eyes.

I can feel it. That fear, creeping and curling it's way up my leg. Trying to wrap itself around my heart so it can squeeze the life out of me.

Black spots pop like fireworks in front of my eyes, and my skins begins to burn as he watches me. I can feel him, his skin on mine, his lips so close, but I can't fight. Can't move.

"You're mine." He promises with a smile and I scream.

**You guys! **

**Holy shit you guys blew me away. Like you made me so damn nervous and smile so damn big. 88 reviews guys? I feel like there is no way I deserve this kind of love, but… I just have no words. I want to make out with all of you for this. **

**You own me. Thank you.**

**I can't say it enough. Ever.**

**If you haven't already, go check out Liv's OS Watch Me Burn. SO good. **

**Reviews for more Masen?**


	3. Chapter 3

**SM owns Twilight. **

**Satan and Ham own me. I'm their bitch and I'm okay with at. **

**Mistakes are mine. **

**Asylum**

**Chapter Three**

"Bella! Get your ass up or so help me God…" Angela is standing over me, shaking the shit out of me and yelling way too loud.

"What happened?" I ask, looking up at the sky, flat on my back. My head is pounding and fuzzy as I try to remember.

"You freaked out." She isn't moving from above me, but her eyes cut to the side. "One minute you were walking and then you just stopped. You wouldn't even talk to me. You just kept mumbling some name."

"What name?" A memory becomes clearer, hands, lips. Eyes. "Angela. What name?"

"I don't remember okay." She shifts, wringing her hands and I can see streaks on her cheeks from tears.

"What is it?" I try to lift my head, but it throbs and the world around me blurs.

She chews her thumb nail, a sign she's nervous, and squeezes her eyes shut. "There's a body, Bella."

"Oh my god." I push myself up slowly onto my elbows and look around.

I see the blonde hair first, matted and splayed across the dirty concrete below. Her blue eyes stare at me, as if she's begging for help, but I'm too late. I can see blood seeping from the corner of her mouth. Even her fingers are stretched out toward me, pointing as if to accuse.

"I called your dad. He said to stay put, but I think I'm going to be sick." Angela breaks the hold the dead girl has over me. I can see her face pale in the moonlight and I push her away.

"Don't you throw up on me, Ang." I sit up, wanting to get a closer look at the girl as Angela runs to the mouth of the alley.

"You did this to her, didn't you?" I whisper, finally seeing the two tiny holes in the girls throat.

I shiver as a cold breeze washes over me when I touch her fingers. I know he's here even if I can't see him. I can feel him, those vicious green eyes. Watching me.

Waiting.

"You aren't going crazy, Bella," I tell myself as I look for some sign of him. "There's gotta be something." I squint my eyes and feel the ground around her, jumping back and hissing as the pavement begins to burn my hands.

"Angela? I try to get her attention as the ground begins to crack around the blonde.

"Just a minute. I think I hear the sirens." She starts heaving but I can't move. Can't look away.

Dark shadows slowly rise from the cracks, like fog after rain, dancing over her skin, caressing it.

"Angela!" I scream, but the sound of the sirens drown me out, leaving me alone with the growing shadow.

I scoot back, skinning my hands, until my head bounces off the brick wall, causing me cry out in pain. It only moves faster, swirling and tugging at every inch of her. Trying to pull her into the cracks. Trying to tear her apart.

Her face moves and her back arches as the fog dives under her. Swirling around her, consuming her. Like it's trying to find an entrance into her. Pushing and pulling, slamming her into the ground below.

"Why are you doing this?" I palm the walls, moving as far away as I can, but I don't dare take my eyes away. Not this time. Not when I can feel him all around me.

"This isn't real. You aren't real." As if it hears me, the shadows pull away and strikes at her with the speed of lightning, lifting her high into the air. I blink and gasp as it slithers back into the ground below, leaving her body but taking something with it.

I move to her quickly, praying she's alive, that it healed her, only to find the sparkling blue now a dark, blood red.

"Jesus don't touch her!" Angela pulls me back as I tug at the body, trying to find some evidence of what I saw.

"Something just tried…" I stop. There isn't a crack in the pavement below her, only the dirty, cold ground from before. Maybe if the cracks were there Angela would believe me, but not now.

"Girls I need you to take a step back." We both jump as Charlie pulls us up from the ground, bringing us into his arms. "Come on, the EMT's here and your head is bleeding, Bells."

I palm my forehead, feeling the blood as it sticks to my hand.

"I'm fine dad, I swear."

"You say you're fine, but you look pale as a ghost." He drags me to the back of the ambulance, ignoring my protests and begins taking our statement.

"Can you girls tell me exactly what happened?" Pen to paper, the concerned father is gone as he looks for answers.

"No." Angela scratches the back of her neck as one of the paramedics drapes a blanket across her shoulders. "Um… Bella thought she saw something across the street though."

"Angela." I narrow my eyes and grit my teeth.

"Bells, someone died." My anger feels out of control, like I need to unleash it on her before I combust.

"What in the hell have I told you about wandering after things?"

"I couldn't help it." I hiss when the paramedic dabs my cut with antiseptic. His cold hands feel wrong somehow.

"You always say that. One of these days you're really gonna get hurt, Bella."

"I know. You keep telling me that, but maybe if you'd listen…"

"I don't have time for this," he interrupts, turning to Angela. "Did you see anything? Anything at all that might be helpful."

I don't bother listening to anything else he has to say, only nodding when he directs his questions toward me, which isn't often.

I concentrate on what I can remember, instead. All I know is a feeling though. Despite feeling danger, something inside of me doesn't fear it. The hands, the eyes. His touch.

"Dammit!" My fists ball and I shake my head.

"Girls I'm gonna be here awhile. Can you make it home in one piece or do you want me to have an officer escort you?"

"I can drive." Angela pipes up as they lay a bandage over my forehead, taping it in place. "It's an hour from here, you can drive once we get to my house."

"You sure?" I ask, knowing how sick she looked before.

"I'm okay," she promises, and I can tell she's worried about me.

"Call me as soon as you get home." His eyes level on mine, like he expects me to fight this.

"I will." I sigh, pushing the blanket off me and standing and every muscle protests as I move.

"You girls be safe."

"Yes sir." He's already paying attention to other things as we walk past him. Not even offering a wave as we walk to the car.

"Please don't be mad at me." Angela looks over at me as we pull away from the coffee shop. I know she thinks I'm pissed, and I was, but I also know she wasn't trying to hurt me.

She doesn't know about the many times I tried to explain things to Charlie. How he ignores my need to seek things out. Things he swears he never sees or hears.

Things I'm _sure _followed me from Arizona.

"I'm not mad at you. I just…" I feel like I'm going crazy. "I don't know, I feel different." I say instead.

"You look different." I turn from her - afraid she see's the scared little girl inside - and watch as trees pass by in a blur.

I spend the rest of the ride, locket in hand, trying to fight a desperate battle to calm myself. Every beat of my heart feels like I'm that much closer to a panic attack. Like a ticking time bomb is about to explode in my chest, and no matter how tight I close my eyes and pretend I'm okay, I'm anything but.

"Bella." My fingers trace lines in the fog on my window. Over and over, barely hearing a word she says. "Bella what are doing?"

"What?" My hand drops and I turn to her, confused. "How long have we been here?"

I look around noticing the front porch light of her house shining through the windshield.

"What is that?" Her eyes are wide as she leans over me to get a better look. "Do you know what you just drew?"

"No. I was just doodling." I trace over the lines. Two upside down triangles, one inside the other with lines running outward converging with a small V at the bottom.

Something about the symbol scares me.

"Maybe you should come inside. Talk to my dad or something." She pulls my hand away from the window and jumps back as if I burned her.

"I'm too tired, Ang." I'm not, but if she wants me to talk to her dad I know something is wrong.

"What did you see in the alley, Bella?"

"It was nothing. Shadows playing tricks on me. You know how I am." I try to smile, but the moonlight casts the shadow of the symbol onto my dashboard, and I can't look away.

"Would you tell me if you thought I'd believe you."

"Would you really believe me?" I narrow my eyes, anger flooding my insides.

"I'm your best friend. I'd believe anything you told me." She promises.

"What about that time when we were kids? When I told you something watches me when I sleep? You laughed." I bite the inside of my cheek, trying hard not to let my anger get ahold of me.

A part of me wants to believe that she won't call me insane, or be terrified of me. There's a small whisper in the back of my mind that tells me otherwise. Telling me I need to protect this secret. That she won't understand.

Instead of pushing the nagging away, I let it comfort me and keep my mouth shut.

"I laughed because we had just watched 'It' and it scared the crap out of us. Remember?" I do remember, but it wasn't a clown. It was those eyes.

Pale green and dangerous.

"Look. I'm okay. I just need sleep. I promise." I want her out of the car so I can be alone. So I can sleep and pretend this never happened.

We sit in silence for a moment and Angela takes my hand, just like she used to when I would wake up crying from nightmares.

She would sneak in my window when I'd call her over the walkie talkie our parents gave us. I'd beg her to come and sleep with me, to stay until the eyes went away. There were so many nights, still are, where if one of us can't be found, we're always with the other.

She's my best friend and all I want to do is make her believe. I want her to tell me I'm not crazy, that I can't be crazy.

But I can't. Because I'm not sure myself.

"I remember the name," she says squeezing my hand one last time as she opens the door.

I don't want to know it. The minute I hear it, something deep inside tells me, warns me, that I'll regret it. I should just unbuckle and let her go, ignore the dread deep in my chest and the faint smell of leather that surrounds me.

I should, but I won't.

"It's Masen. You were saying Masen."

**dun dun dunnnn… **

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**See you in a few days! **


	4. Chapter 4

**SM owns Twilight. **

**Ham and Satan own my soul, but there was an accident and Ham had to be offered up as sacrifice to Satan.**

**Satan said Ham was delicious, btw. **

**All mistakes are mine. **

**Asylum**

**Chapter Four**

"You sure you're okay, Bells?" It's been two weeks since the alley and every single day Charlie asks the same question, always eyeing me over his coffee, concerned and terrifying me.

I can't look him in the eyes. I tried the first morning and nearly fell down the stairs when he came into view.

His brown, bloodshot eyes became distorted, opening up to hollow dark holes. His face turned grey and his mouth stretched wide as he just stared at me. It was almost like he was looking into my soul, seeking out the flaws, the dark marks left long ago.

"I'm fine. I promise." I'm not, but I won't tell him that. I know he's heard the screams from my room. I know he's noticed I can't look at him, that my fingers tremble around my coffee mug whenever he's close.

It's also the reason I haven't talked to Angela. I don't want her to see me like this, even if I do miss her.

My nights are filled with onyx wings and icy green eyes. Nightmares painted with the screams of a child clutching a picture of a winged man and bloody handprints.

I can still feel him against my skin: fingers traveling over my neck, lips burning into my flesh.

Marking me.

I wake up covered in sweat and try to catch my breath. I felt certain something was inside my mind. Lurking in places no one should be, pushing to make the images clearer.

It started as a tingle, a distant headache I couldn't shake. Now there's a hum inside my head, growing stronger, driving me to the brink of insanity.

Charlie thinks I'm remembering Mom. The truth is, I'll never forget her. The only difference is instead of seeing her dead on the floor of our living room, I see _him_.

He's there when I close my eyes, always waiting for me, taunting me. His eyes always playful, his wings surrounding us, black and beautiful, as his lips whisper warnings I never hear.

Charlie nods, distracting me, as he takes a sip of his coffee and picks up his paper. "First day of your senior year. You excited?"

"Sure, I guess." I pick a spot just above his head to look. I hope like hell he doesn't noticed the color drain from my face. I look quickly at his face, my stomach churning when his face appears to be shaking so fast it's nothing more than a blur of pale flesh.

"Alright, kiddo." He pushes his chair back and walks behind me, kissing the top of my head. "You know how to reach me if you need anything. I won't be home until late."

I turn my head as his fingers grip my shoulders. Nails that were once chewed are now black and dirty, growing longer every second he touches me.

"See ya tonight, Bells." My body relaxes, almost falling out of my chair, when I hear the door click shut as he leaves.

I scramble to get ready, trying my best to get Charlie's face further and further out of mind.

The drive to Angela's isn't easy. My hands shake as I grip the steering wheel. I tell myself that I can do this, that my eyes are playing tricks on me from stress, and lack of sleep.

I don't bother going to her door, shooting her a quick text when I pull into the driveway.

"Come on, Bella." I bounce in my seat, nervous and sweating while I wait for her.

As soon as she opens the door to my truck I jump. Bile rises, burning the inside of my throat, and a single hot tear escapes my eye when I force myself to look at her.

Long brown hair, same brown eyes framed in glasses. She's my best friend.

"I wasn't sure you'd come." She climbs inside and I feel like crap for ignoring her.

"I wasn't either."

"Jeez, Bella. Are you gonna be sick?" She hands me a bottle of water as I reach across the seat and hug her to me.

"I'm okay. I promise." I jerk away from her as a shadow moves in the rolling fog beside her house.

"You don't look okay."

"Just a migraine. You know how it is." I offer a weak smile. "Look, I'm sorry I've been avoiding you. There are just things happening. I can't explain them, but I need you to trust me."

"You've been my best friend for twelve years. I trust you, but if there is anything I can do, Bella you have to let me." She turns her head and a single black feather falls to the seat.

I freeze, my eyes tracing every line of the feather as Angela buckles up, oblivious to the pounding in my chest.

"Ugh, stupid birds." She goes for the feather but I stop her, snatching it up and holding it out. "You are so strange." She laughs.

"You have no idea." I hold it between two fingers for a moment, watching the light reflect off it, before slipping it in my pocket.

We sit in silence the rest of the ride to school, but I know she wants to ask why I ditched her. We've never just texted each other, there has always been phone calls and lunches.

She doesn't say any of that though.

Even throughout the day she keeps silent, but beside me. Letting me use her strength, letting me grab her hand when someone's face turns dark, or they don't have one at all.

All the while I clutch the feather in my pocket, wondering why I feel so close to it. Why I feel the need to touch it.

"Come on." Angela pulls me out of our last class together as the bell rings for lunch.

So far we've had it easy, only introductions, no real work. I have a feeling that'll be different for my last class. Something in my gut, like tiny needles stabbing at it, worries me.

"You have Mr Banner. I _hate _him," Angela whispers, laughing as we pass him in the hall.

"He's not so bad." I shrug, remembering how easy he is on homework.

"Not so bad? I heard he's making you do some kind of blood thing today."

"We've been together all day. How did you hear that?" I don't remember anyone saying that today.

"Well, when a certain someone does nothing but stare at the wall all day." Angela laughs just as a chill runs up my spine and goosebumps over my arms, only this time she stops when I do.

"You felt that, didn't you?"

"Must've been a draft." She shakes her head, but there was no draft. Just hot muggy fog and a light drizzle of rain.

"Angela we're outside." She turns quickly as student's pass, bumping into us as they rush to lunch.

"I don't remember coming out here." Angela mutters hoisting her messenger bag further onto her side, clutching at the strap, and that's when I see him.

Dark leather boots, dirty and worn. Black jeans that hug his legs and a tight black button up pushed up to his elbows under a hoodie. A cigarette dangles from his lips as he plays with a zippo, rolling it between his fingers.

I take a step back as his cold green eyes find mine, winking at me with a cocky smile.

"Holy crap, Bella you're shaking." I fall into Angela as his pulls the cigarette from his lips. Smoke rolls out of his mouth as he waves at me.

It's when he moves his arm that I notice the dark ink peeking out of his shirt, staining his pale skin and trailing halfway down his forearms.

"Tell me you see him." I pull her in front of me, forcing her to look. "Tell me!"

He raises his hood covered face, his eyes twinkling, and growing brighter, as an ebony bird lands on his shoulder.

"I'm calling your dad." She rummages through her bag as another bird lands at his feet, and then another, and another until he's surrounded by them. They begin to grow, their heads separating until there are two where moments before there was only one. Their claws push into the ground, digging into the pliant earth as they grow inch by inch.

Red eyes slowly disappear as feathers, long and black, cover their heads.

"We have to get inside." I dig my fingers into her arm as he crouches on the ground and I freeze.

"I'm getting the nurse." She tries to pull me with her, but I can't move. His gaze traps me, like a deer caught in the headlights, as I hear him whisper my name.

"Go away!" I scream. He lifts a finger to his lips as transparent wings spread from the birds. Short beaks become long and jagged, bending to a point as they lift their heads to me.

His hands falls to his side as the birds start to shake. No longer small crows, each bird stands on their feet, their heads reaching his hip.

"Please stop this," I beg as I begin to back up, inching closer to the double doors of the cafeteria.

His smile is wide and sinister as he lights another, and the birds take clawed step toward me. The only noise I hear is their talons scraping against the concrete as they step onto the walkway.

"No sudden moves, beautiful." He tsks as I look behind me. I'm inches from the door. I could reach back and open them. It would only take seconds for me to run inside, but something is holding me back.

"Angela." I see her through the glass door as she takes another step toward me.

I bolt, twisting my body away as his deep laugh echoes in my ears. Pushing the doors open, I grab Angela before she can make it outside.

"Woah!" Her eyes go wide as she steadies us. "I was just coming to get you. Apparently the nurse is in the other building grabbing supplies."

"We have to stay here. Right here." I slink down onto the cold tiles of the cafeteria, blocking her.

"Stop being silly. You need the nurse." She tries to pull me up, but I refuse to move.

"You think I'm crazy, I know that, but please don't go out there." I try to catch my breath, putting my head between my legs as I breathe in and out.

"No way would I go out there with all those birds." She leans around me and looks out the window. "Where do you think they came from?"

I shoot up and toward the crows from before are back, only this time smaller and pecking at the ground.

"Let's get you something to eat." At lunch she offers half her food, her expression troubled. I press my cheek to the cool surface of the table, dreading being away from her, even for an hour.

All I can think about is how he is surrounding himself with birds that look more dead than alive. His low voice and cocky smile play over and over as I close my eyes and ignore the world around me.

By the end of the day, I can't even look out the windows. Not after each time I'd done so he'd been there. Just a blur of a figure, dressed in black head to toe.

As soon as I step foot in biology the intense smell of sulfur and cigarette smoke surrounds me. My gut feeling is to run, to just get in my car and go home. To sleep this day off and pray for a better one tomorrow.

Or maybe to never wake up.

Either way I know something isn't right, that something bad is about to happen and I can't stop it.

I sit in the only vacant table in the room and pull out a pen as I wait for class to start.

Mike tries to talk to me, just like he does every year, but today I ignore him. I ignore him and I wait.

I don't bother opening a book as Mr. Banner talks about upcoming assignments. I don't take notes. I don't even look at the white board.

The sound of something tapping the glass outside is the only thing I can concentrate on.

Like a ticking time bomb it grows louder and louder, until it's the only sound in the small, cramped room. Until trying not to look out the window becomes only a flickering memory.

Flashes of black catch my eye and make me turn in my seat.

"Miss Swan, pay attention please." I can't. My eyes grow fearful and wide as one of the birds from before lands on a branch just outside the window.

"May I be excused?" I try looking away, to close my eyes and force myself forward, but I can't. I _need _to look, to see what's going to happen next.

The birds terrify me, but if they are close then he isn't far.

"There is only fifteen more minutes," he says before turning back to the class, but I can't move. My eyes are glued as more birds land and others begin flying in a circle.

Each time they pass their heads turn in my direction and I scoot further back in my chair.

"Mr. Banner?" I can hear Mike's voice over the fluttering of wings as they race past the windows. One right after the other, as if they're running away from something.

Or someone.

"Miss Swan?" I dig the end of my pen into my hand as the sound of hundreds of wings echo in my ears. Dark shadows dance outside the windows, each going faster and faster.

I dig until I break skin, until blood pools in my palm and drips into my jeans and the floor.

"Mr Banner, is everything okay?" A voice asks over the intercom in the room as my eyes remain locked on the window.

A long, cracked beak taps against the glass. Dark feathers cover its eyes but I know it sees me.

"Go away." I repeat over and over as more join the bird trying to break in. My body begins to shake as I carve into my hand. I can feel the open wounds screaming for me to stop as they become wider, but I can't.

Something inside tells me to go faster, to draw harder.

"Get the pen away from her," someone yells just as the birds break the glass.

One by one they inch inside. The tips of their wings turn red with flames as they swoop down, tearing and scratching at the students in the room.

Screams fill the air as the birds open their beaks wide, taking chunks and ripping out hair. They circle me as I push the pen deeper into my hand. Blood coats their claws and paints their feathers as they move closer, surrounding me.

It's like watching lungs work as they move. In and out, slowly and purposefully.

When they take out Mr. Banner―knocking him against the white board and begin to eat at his stomach―I scream.

My insides burn, and my body aches as my arms swipe at anything that comes close. I feel when the pen slices into a bird and flinch as it's howl pierces the room.

I want to smile, to laugh, to point out my victory, but I know he's near. That the birds may not have eyes, but _he_ does. That he is enjoying this.

A sick part of me is too. The part that will finally have proof that I'm not crazy.

"Hold her down!" Someone screams as the birds flash in front of my eyes. Their feathers brush against my skin, slicing into my flesh, scarring every inch of me.

"Bella." Pale green eyes come into focus as I thrash against the birds and try to crawl away.

He's laughing in my ear as blood begins to cover every inch of me. I see it all over the floor and for a moment everything disappears.

One horror story devours the other and I'm five years old screaming for my mother to wake up. Screaming for Masen to help me. Wiping blood away from her face and begging. Begging him to bring her back.

Demanding he not leave me.

"Come back to me sweet girl." I blink and blood covers everything. Birds begin to devour anything that moves and Masen… "You remember?"

He looks down at me with a sinister smile. His crystal like eyes so familiar, yet so devastating.

"You aren't real!" I scream and take another swipe with my pen and a bird falls to the floor beside me. It's covered in blood and flesh from its victims, twitching as it tries to take flight once more.

"Are you so sure?" His fingers find purchase on my chin, pushing my face into the air as he lifts me to my feet. "Is none of this real?"

I look around me. Bodies are piled on desks, birds feasting on their corpses. Feathers fall all around us through the air, sticking to exposed bone as they land.

In an instant his mouth is on mine, soft lips crushing and heating every inch of my body before he lets go, shoving me against Mr Banner's body.

His wings spread wide, ebony against a glowing red as he slices a bird in half before it reaches me.

Suddenly it's a war around me. Birds that once seemed to protect me, are now attacking me. Swooping down and stabbing me with the tips of their blood stained beaks.

I take the pen in my hand and stab into my flesh as I watch him rip the beak off a bird.

Masen's wing rise further into the air as if to protect me and I crawl under Mr Banner's desk, trying to hide.

Black spots swim in my vision, blocking the world around me. I hear only the pounding of my heart as the world around me stills.

Masen comes into view, brushing away drops of blood and feathers that stopped mid air.

The icy green of his eyes slowly turns black, like spiderwebs them over, as he looks down on me.

"Sleep." He says and the darkness consumes me as his fingers slide over my eyelids.

**Did I scare any of you too bad? **

**Some have asked for my updating schedule. I try to update two or three times a week. It all depends on how wordy things get. I also do try to respond to reviews, but writing so much takes a lot of my time up. **

**If you have any questions that won't give away my plot, I will answer you. If you want to PM I'll answer your questions there too, or if you just wanna talk about Masen or the fic you can find my on Facebook under Nerdy Fanfiction. **

**Asylum is up for Fic of the Week over at the Lemonade Stand! **

**Now how about some reviews? **


	5. Chapter 5

**SM OWNS TWILIGHT! **

**Ham and Satan own me. **

**All mistakes are mine. I tinkered in here after they finished. **

**Asylum**

**Chapter Five**

"Someone get Angela in here please!" Charlie shouts, his hands at my side, as fluorescent lights buzz above me.

"Dad?" I try, but my mouth is too dry and I end up coughing instead.

"I'm right here, baby girl," he squeezes my fingers and I close my eyes.

"Family only, Chief." The doctor barks and I feel the anger rolling off my dad.

"That girl is Bella's family, and the only person who knows what happened to her. If you want to keep your job here, you'll do what I say." He seethes.

I've only ever heard Charlie yell like that once before. The day he demanded they stop questioning me about my mother's death. He'd torn apart a room then. All to protect me.

"Yes sir."

"Bella? Baby you gotta stop screaming." Charlie restrains my arms as I try to claw my flesh from bone. I can feel the blood on my fingers, coating my hands.

"The feathers. Get them off me!" I shout, feeling them all over me. Covering every inch of me.

"We're gonna give you something to calm you down, okay? Just breathe in and out slowly."

"No!" I jerk away, but someone else pushes me down, holding me in place.

"If you don't calm down, Bella, you are going to have a heart attack." A man in a white mask looks down at me with sunken, hollow eyes and I scream until my lungs burn. "It's only a mild sedative." He pricks my arm with a needle and I push him so hard the gurney smacks into the wall.

"What did you do to her?" I hear Angela's voice slipping away as her feet smack against the linoleum. I want to reach out for her, grab her hand and beg her to keep me awake. To make them stop, but it's useless.

"I'm right here, Bella." I feel her hand in mine just before everything goes numb.

"You have to stop them. He'll find me. Stop them… please?" I beg her, but my words are slurred and my eyes are heavy. "He will, he'll get me."

She looks down at me and I flinch as her face turns white and her eyes start to bleed.

"I believe you." She promises before I let the dizziness consume me.

I wake in room with a white sheet covering me. Sweat drips from my face, coating my hair and rolling over my lips. The taste of salt is bitter on my tongue as I try to brush away the fog from the medicine.

Charlie sits against the wall with Angela. His hands are in his hair, pulling at the ends as he bounces his knee. Angela watches me while rubbing circles into my father's back, comforting him the same way I have so many times before.

It makes me smile that she's doing for him, what I can not.

"I just don't understand." I hear Charlie as I try to fight off the fog inside my head. "She almost killed her teacher, and that poor boy. She's cut herself all over with a pen, Angela."

"It's so close to her…" I stop listening. Tears well up in my eyes while Angela talks about my mother. I know what she thinks, that I'm only acting this way because of her death. Because of the date.

She's wrong.

"Renee wouldn't have wanted this for her. Not this." Charlie grabs a paper cup from the table, crumpling it in his hand as the fog begins to fade.

"Something is scaring her, Charlie." Angela sounds frightened and when I look down at my hands, cuffed in padding, I am too.

"She won't talk to me. Never has." He's wrong. I've tried, but how am I supposed to explain eyes that watch me, and a man that's not really there.

"Me either. Ever since we were little she's kept it to herself."

"I don't know what to do. She refuses counseling; medicine. How am I supposed to help her?" Anger courses through my veins, red hot and stinging my insides as he talks.

"Do you know someone named Masen?"

"Yeah, sorta. She had an imaginary friend named that when she lived with Renee. Told the police that's who she was with." Charlie looks up at me with sad eyes and a deep frown.

I smile for the first time in weeks as I look at them.

"Your eyes." If I could move my arms I'd wrap them around them both.

"Bella?" Charlie jumps from his spot and rushes to my side.

"I can see your eyes." My heart is suddenly hammering in my chest again and my body feels like it's on fire as I begin to convulse.

"Nurse!" Angela screams. They try to push me down, to hold me still, but my back arches higher into the air. The only thing keeping me from falling off the bed are the restraints.

"Bells? Bella stay with us." Charlie grabs my face between his hands, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"She's crashing!"

"Open your eyes dammit!" I can feel hands on my chest. A mouth on my own, breathing into me.

One, two, three. Push.

One, two, three. Push.

The beeping fades, their screams completely gone and Masen appears in the corner. His arms are crossed and he smiles at me, winking when I turn away.

The room is different than before. The walls are torn apart. The tiles appear torched and faded, pieces of them missing or hanging by a thread. The lights flicker above me, never quite lighting the room enough. Everything is grey and dusty.

"Am I dead?" I look around and can't help but wonder if I'm in hell.

"Do you want to be?" I don't answer him. I don't know. Death has never scared me.

When I had no idea what death even was… seeing it first hand, watching it happen? It changed me.

It became a fact, not a fear.

Anger replaced that fear a long time ago. Now instead of tasting anxiety when I think about it, all I taste is the bitter aftertaste of my mother's death.

"Where am I?" I know the room. I've been in a hospital before, but this isn't the same. It's too hot, the smells burn my nose, and there are things here, creatures like the birds. I can't see them, but I do feel them.

"You're safe… for now," he says, but I don't trust him.

"You did this to me, didn't you?" I ask, pulling on my restraints as his eyes trail over me. "It's always been you."

Realization settles in my bones. Glimpses of my past flash in my mind like a movie reel. The nightmares, the hallucination, they all have one thing in common. The strange feeling of dread and want they create. The fear and longing.

It's how I feel now. How I've felt every time this man, this winged creature from my nightmares has shown himself to me. Is it all connected? Is he the common denominator? Has it been him all along?

"It has." I jump when he answers my unspoken question.

"How did you…"

"One of my many talents." He winks, sending a shiver down my spine.

"Don't do that again." I glare.

"Did I hurt someones feelings?" He pouts and I thrash in the bed.

"You think you hurt my feelings? Look at me! Look at what you did to me!" I feel the bandages as they begin to lift with every move I make while I scream at him.

"The birds?" He looks bored as he twists the curtains open and closed to my door. "A gift to you. Did you not enjoy them?"

"Why are doing this?" I ask, not understanding how he went from a friend to this psychopath.

"There are people who want you dead. I'm merely protecting an asset." His eyes are fierce and his shoulders tense as he cracks his neck. "It's my duty."

"By making me crazy?" I don't like his use of the word asset. Like I'm something to be had.

"You're already crazy. I'm just… pushing you along." His boots scrape the floor as he makes his way toward me.

"You're pushing too hard." I look up at the ceiling, tears welling in my eyes. He's been pushing me for years. Pushing my mind, my sanity.

"Maybe, but it was fun." He shrugs and picks up Charlie's cup, tossing it into the trash.

"Wait… who wants me dead?" My mind pulls up a memory of my mother, but I push it back. I don't want to see that now. Not after earlier.

"Certain… people. Angry people," he chuckles.

"Why do they want me dead?"

"Because I want you," his eyes flashing to mine. I know there's more he isn't telling me.

I want to tell him he can't have me, that I'm not a toy. His eyes, the fierceness in them, and the small shake of his head tell me I'm wrong.

"What are you?" I'm not sure I want an answer, but the words are out before I can stop them. Too much is going on, too many questions running through my head.

"A guardian."

"A guardian? Aren't they supposed to keep you safe?" He laughs and pulls up a chair beside me. "What kind of guardian drives people insane?"

"The kind that people make deals with." His eyes flash dark crimson, before turning back to the icy green I'm so used to. It's not comforting, but I prefer it against the stark color of blood.

"I never made a deal with you." I would remember that. I've been slowly losing my mind for almost twelve years, but my memory is perfect.

"No. Not directly." His fingers dance across my sheet, never touching me, but I can feel the heat rolling off him.

"Are you going to leave me alone?" His fingers touch my palm, tracing over the wound.

"Do you know what that means?" He unbuckles my cuff and pulls my hand into his lap, distracting me.

"No." I shiver as his fingers tap feather light over the surface of my skin.

"Some believe it's a sigil of Lucifer. A way of calling him. Hoping he'll respond. Many used it to conjure an opening to Hell. They wanted to unite with him, to enter the gates and experience all it's glory." There is a faint smile on his lips as his fingers work over my skin.

"And what do you believe?" I whisper, my entire body feeling as though it's on fire when he touches me. I don't want him to stop.

"I believe you missed me." I try to snatch my hand away, but his grip tightens. "You can admit that, Bella. I won't judge you." His laugh sends electricity through my body.

"Why won't you leave me alone?" A tear falls down my cheek and he wipes it away.

"Because we aren't done yet, you and I."

"I remember you." A child's memory, but it's still mine.

"I'm sure you do." He kicks his feet up onto my hospital bed and leans back.

"You killed her," I whisper. Shadows dance beyond the broken windows of my room, their forms swirling and scattering before new ones appear in their place.

"No. I made a deal with her." He says. "And a deal is a deal."

"What kind of deal?" Dread fills me. I try to think of what she could have possibly gotten from him. What she would have ever want from someone like him.

"You'll find out soon enough." His eyes light up with excitement and it terrifies me.

"No. You killed her and now you're playing games." I shake my head at him. "Wake me up I want to go back. I don't want to do this with you. Not anymore."

"But we're just getting to know each other." He shoulders shake with laughter when I grit my teeth.

"You don't know anything about me."

"Then let's share our interests, shall we? I do enjoy a good game of chase." He tilts his head to the side, and I force myself to look away. "What is it you enjoy, Bella?"

"Stop it." I try to knee his leg from beside mine, but he grabs me.

"You'll only hurt yourself." His green eyes grow concerned for a split second, before the black creeps back in.

"Please stop?"

"Do you enjoy blood, Bella? When it coats your hands? The sweet alluring smell. I so like it when flesh tears away from bone. That sound." His eyes close and small smile plays on his lips. "You'll enjoy it too one day."

"You're a liar," I spit.

"And you, Isabella Marie, are still very young." I hate my body right now. The reaction it's having to my name falling from his lips. Everything tingles, my heart, my toes.

He's a monster. Yet something like my name, and the look in his eyes, possessive and wanting, leaves me scared and needy.

It's like he has a spell over me. I'm sure of it.

"Please let me go back." I beg him as the shadows move closer. I hear them whispering, their growls vibrate my bed, and echo off the walls.

"They won't hurt you." He laces our fingers together, a simple act that feels damning to me.

"I want to see Charlie and Angela." I don't feel safe with him and I need to see them. To feel them, to know they are safe.

"Sweet, innocent, Angela." He sneers her name, his voice dripping with venom and hate.

"Leave her alone. She hasn't done anything." The thought of him hurting her, of her ending up like the woman in the alley terrifies me.

"Oh, how little you know." He laughs deep, making my head fuzzy and my belly ache.

"Let me go, please?" I beg.

"Distance does make the heart grow fonder. And Bella-" His lips are on my ear, his breath hot on my neck. "Your heart? It beats for me, and _only _me." A chill runs down my spine and he presses a kiss to the soft spot below my ear.

"I've waited a long time to taste your flesh, Bella." He kisses me again, growling as he grips the back of my hair. "Too long."

"You aren't real. They gave me something when I came in. You're a dream. Nothing more." I repeat over and over, trying to slow my heart as it pounds.

He can't be real. None of this can be real.

"Would you like to feel just how real I am?" He stands and I blush deep red.

His eyes turn wicked. The green pales to almost clear blue and his smile becomes feral as his head whips toward the door.

"What's wrong?" I blink out of a daze, confused by the change of air in the room.

Once light it's now thick with tension and a fog begins to roll in from the hall.

"They're about to shock you back to life, so I need you to listen to me." He leans in close. The smell of tobacco and honey hits me and I feel like I'm in a trap. His trap.

"Back to life? What does that mean?" I try to unbuckle my other hand, but he stops me.

"Listen to me." His green eyes turn tender and his voice becomes deeper. "Things are coming. Things I can't stop, that I can't protect you from." Slowly the tattoos that cover his arms begin to disappear. They fade away and raven like wings rise behind him, pulsating while they spread wide.

"What's happening?" The shadows creep closer, their blood stained fingers inching over the seal of the window as flames rise around them. "Masen?"

"Prepare yourself, Bella. The world you once knew is about to change dramatically." He kisses my forehead―sending goosebumps down my spine―and hands me a single black feather. "Don't forget me this time?"

With a wink, he surrounds us with his wings, shielding us from the shadows as my body jumps, smashing hard against his chest.

**Oh, Masen. You are SUCH a romantic. **

**Reviews keep the birds away. **


	6. Chapter 6

**SM owns Twilight. **

**Ham and Satan are awesome betches. They make this pretty and beat me into submission. What more can a girl ask for? **

**All mistakes are mine. **

**Asylum**

**Chapter Six**

"Bella," Charlie taps on the door, jarring me awake. "You've been in there for almost two hours."

"I'm getting out." I pull the stopper from the drain and grab a towel.

"Breakfast is on the table." I wait a breath for his steps. I know he worries, that he listens in and checks on me. I don't blame him, I worry about me too.

I wipe the mirror with a pruned hand and look at my reflection. Sad, empty eyes stare back at me, it's like I'm looking at a stranger.

A bruised and beaten stranger, angry at everything and nothing.

Two weeks. I spent fourteen days in the hospital. They held me there, claiming it was to observe me, my heart. That when I died… when my heart stopped, it could have damaged something.

I laugh thinking about it. Of course it damaged me.

He damaged me.

I look down at the pink, jagged scars that run over my arms. The one on my hand scares me. It's perfect. The lines, the color, like it belongs there.

I'm still not sure I didn't just make him up. His words. His face, those hands.

The feeling when he touched me, it was as if he pierced my skin with his fingers. Whatever he found in there, whatever he touched, it's made me feel empty.

Alone.

It's been two weeks since I left the hospital. A month since I last stepped out of this house. No school, barely any contact with the outside world besides Angela, and he hasn't shown himself.

I haven't seen a bird, or felt like I am being watched.

And I hate him because I miss him.

Charlie and Angela's faces are theirs again, but I can see their sadness. They feel sorry for me, helpless even.

I talk to them, sometimes, but I refuse to bring up Masen. I refuse to talk about anything that happened. They smile and pretend like I do, that everything is fine.

They make empty promises of better days and sleep filled nights. They tell me it takes time, that what's happened to me happens to so many others.

I have to believe that, even if the things Masen said nag at me. I hear the echo of his words in my mind. Bouncing around. Taunting me.

It's why I'm chewing on my nails as Charlie eats his breakfast, smiling at me before shoveling eggs into his mouth.

I promise myself every day I'll ask, and then I feel foolish when I try.

Not today. The emptiness hurts too much. Like a void expanding in my chest, with every beat the wound he dug in my heart grows bigger.

Darker.

"You've got that look," Charlie says around a mouth full of bacon.

"What look?" I pick up a piece of toast, nibbling its edge. My stomach twists in knots as I think of the right words.

"Like you want to ask me something." He chuckles.

"I don't have a look." I smile and look down. It feels good to hear him laugh. After so many nights of him watching over me, of silent tears he didn't think I could see. A laugh is more than I had hoped for when I got home.

"It's the same look you had when you were ten and wanted a puppy. I know you, Bells. Just spit it out." He sits back in his chair, looking at me.

"We never talk about mom." The words tumble out. Just mentioning her makes my chest hurt.

"Not in a long time, no." He wipes his mouth. "What do you want to know about her?"

Anytime I've ever asked about her, it's always to know more. Her favorite colors, her eyes, how they met.

"When did you and mom decide to have me?" I don't know another way to ask. Did you want me? Did you not want me?

"Is this about sex?"

"What?" I choke on my milk. "Oh my god. No." My cheeks heat and I'm horrified.

"We've never really uh… had this talk before. I mean you've never really asked about… well, sex," he sputters and I want to laugh at him.

I shut my eyes, wishing my plate would swallow me whole. "This isn't about sex."

"Good. I don't think I'm ready for that." He laughs again. "What's got you nervous?"

"I just wanted to know when you guys decided to have me. Was it planned?" I wring my hands in my lap, a nervous habit he says I picked up from my mother. One I hope he doesn't see.

"Oh, thank God." He's sweating and looks ready to bolt out the door.

"No kidding." I laugh.

"Me and your mom wanted to have you for a long time, Bells," he starts. "There were some complications and we were told we couldn't have a baby."

"What?" I never knew about this. She had once told me, while packing away baby things, that I was planned for so long. That it's why I was wise beyond my years.

"The doctors told us it just couldn't happen. Neither of us were capable. It tore your mom up. Tore _us_ up. She was depressed for months. I was so sure I lost her that day." He leans against the table, looking out the window. "I told her it didn't matter, that I loved her no matter what, but I think she saw it broke my heart even though I tried to hide it."

"Why didn't you ever tell me this?" I reach across the table and take his hand. He needs the comfort as much as I do.

"It was a long time ago, Bella and we don't talk about your mom much." He looks at me and I see the tears that won't fall from his eyes.

"I know." I look down at my plate. "But she got pregnant."

"She did." He smiles. "She came home one day after disappearing for a week."

"A week?" I interrupt, wide eyed and confused.

"That news messed her up. She told me she needed to visit a cousin in Louisiana and she just left. She came back, she always did, but this time was different. She was smiling, lit up like a Christmas tree. She handed me a test a few days after and nine months later you were born."

"Wow." I sit back in my seat, trying to process.

"That was my exact reaction." He laughs into his coffee mug. "One of the happiest days of my life."

"But you guys separated." I hate bringing it up, but I need to know.

"She distanced herself from me a year after you were born. Just out of the blue on your first birthday. She was adamant that you go with her, and with my job and her… she always had a way with me, could get me to do just about anything. I let her take you and until the day she died I was mad as hell at her."

"You aren't now?" I ask, brushing away a tear.

"It was like she knew. Like she wanted every moment with you she could get because she knew she was going to die. How could I hate her for that? For the memories she gave you?"

We sit in silence, me pushing my eggs around my plate and him looking out the window. I feel like I'm missing something, like he's holding back, but I won't push him. Not now.

"You should take your medicine, get that crap out of the way," Charlie tells me as he pours himself another cup of coffee.

I don't tell him I've decided not to today. Instead, I slip three pills out of their bottles and drop them into my glass as I take a gulp. He trusts me to take them, hasn't checked or asked me twice since day one.

Even though I hate lying to him, they make me feel funny. It's like being underwater. My head is always fuzzy, never quite grasping things around me, as if the medicine is hiding something from me.

Hiding him.

I take the risk today and by nightfall I begin to regret it.

I startle awake. Jumping out of my bed as someone bangs on our front door.

Like gunshots it echoes around my room.

_Bam… bam… bam. _

"Dad!" I yell from my room and grab my clock.

It's four in the morning. I don't bother calling him again, instead, I creep through the house, leaving the lights off and trying not to fall down the stairs.

"Stop." I hiss at the door.

"Bella! Answer the door before I break it down!" I hear Angela from the other side and I pull open the door.

"What the hell, Ang? Why didn't you just use the damn walkie?"

"I tried to. For the last hour, but you cut it off after you called me." She huffs, trying to catch her breath. "Why is so dark?"

"It's four in the morning. Do you keep all your lights on this time of night?" I laugh. "Besides, how could I call you when I was sleeping?"

"Sleeping? No you called me. You said, and I quote, "Help me." I blink at her and pull her into the house.

"Angela I've been asleep since ten. No way I called you." I shake my head and peek out the door before ushering Angela inside and shutting it.

"I swear to you. I tried your cell and the walkie but you cut them both off. You called me, Bella. You sounded so calm at first, I thought it was joke or something." I grab her arm and pull her into the kitchen, not wanting to wake Charlie, and flip on a light.

"I think I would remember calling you." I laugh and Angela freezes when I turn around.

"Do you remember the blood?" Her face is pale and her eyes are big.

"What blood?" I follow her gaze as it falls to my hands and I scream.

**Missing Masen yet? **


	7. Chapter 7

**SM owns it. **

**Ham and Satan own me. **

**All mistakes are mine. **

**Asylum **

**Chapter 7**

"No." The word tastes funny as it leaves my mouth. Too sweet as it lacerates my tongue and burns my throat.

"Bella, wait." Angela calls, but it's too late.

The blood that covers my hands coats the stairs as I run, taking two steps at a time. I smear it along the stair rail, and leave prints along the wall, pushing myself. Demanding my feet to move faster.

I run into Charlie's room and slip on something wet. I slip and slide and I scream. My body collides with the edge of his bed, catching me in the ribs, and I cry out just as Angela flips on the light.

"Oh god." She flips it off and I scream for her to turn it on again.

"Call the cops," I yell and hold onto my aching side.

"But, Bella…" I know what she's thinking.

"Just call them." I grab the mattress, lifting myself onto the bed, and Angela runs out of the room.

I narrow my eyes and shut out the noises around me.

His blood is everywhere. Dripping down the bed, the nightstand. It runs along the walls and it dots the headboard above him.

"Please be breathing," I whisper and inch closer to him. "Just be breathing."

Blood soaks the bed, squishing beneath my fingers as I move.

I check his neck but I can't see where the blood is coming from. The sheet around him is soaked. His pillow, his shirt. Everything is red and sticky.

Tears fall down my face as I lay my head on his chest, holding my breath as I search for his. Too afraid to lift the sheet. To find the source.

"You won't find it."

I lift my head at the sound of his voice and the smell of honey. I'm not surprised to see Masen step away from the shadows, a finger on his lips and mischief in his eyes.

I stare at him as I hold onto Charlie, bringing his head into my lap.

"I did this," I choke.

Masen just stares at me, his arms flexing as the green of his eyes turns to an icy white.

"Why did I do this?" I rock Charlie, running my fingers through his hair and whispering how sorry I am into his ear.

Masen doesn't answer me, only turns his head and smiles.

"Bella, we don't know that you did this." Angela stands at the door watching me.

"His blood is on me, Angela," I spit, looking at her as if she's the crazy one.

"It could have been anyone." She grips the side of the door, and looks down at Charlie.

"Like him?" I laugh and nod toward Masen whose eyes turn cruel as he watches her.

"Yes, him." She takes a tentative step toward me and turns to him. "You need to leave."

"You see him." I blink, my hands holding tight onto Charlie. "You lied to me. You have seen him."

"It wasn't like that, Bella." She moves closer and I pull Charlie closer to me. Not trusting her.

"Would you like to tell her the truth about who you are?" Masen moves away from the wall, the floorboards below him creaking with each slow step he takes.

"If you don't leave, I'll make you." Her teeth grit and Masen laughs.

"Your wings are cut, little bird. You could try, but I'd hate to cut you open just so Bella could see what you really are." He leans in close. "Would you really want her to see that?"

"You wouldn't so that to her." Angela smiles.

"I said I hate to." He pulls out a cigarette, lighting it and inhaling deeply. "Not that I wouldn't do it."

"Bella, I need you to let go of Charlie." She moves to the front of the bed, blocking my view of Masen.

"What? No." I grip him tighter, pulling him closer.

"Please, Bella."

"Show her the real you, little bird. Go ahead." He laughs and his eyes begin to glow a bright white. "I dare you."

Angela's hands ball into tight fists and her back begins to move.

"Dirty work was never your forte." He laughs and Angela is lifted into the air. Her back arches and her head falls back, but she doesn't scream. Doesn't fight it.

"You should really be more careful who you pick a fight with." A few more inches and her chest will hit the ceiling. "Did you really think I'd play nice?"

I hear the thump before I see her body thrown against the wall.

My stomach rolls at the thud and crunch as she crumples to the floor.

"Stop!" I shout but he has her in the air again. Her feet barely touch the floor.

"She's tougher than you think," he winks, and twists his wrist. I can see the indentations of his fingers in her neck and she gasps for air.

"Run, Bella!" She screams, but he squeezes tighter, cutting her off.

"It's time for you to shut up." Her neck snaps at the same time Charlie coughs.

I hear Angela's whimpers, but I ignore it as Charlie's fingers jump and grip the bed.

"You should really be more careful who you let in." His smile is vicious and he nudges Angela's body with his boot.

I ignore him. I ignore her.

"Save him." I swipe at the tears on my face, feeling Charlie's warm blood smear on my cheek. "Please, Masen."

"I can't, Bella." He sits on the edge of the bed, tucking a stray hair behind my ear. I lose myself in his touch. The feeling of his skin on mine.

Fire and ice.

Heaven and Hell.

"Don't lie to me!" I scream, pushing away from him and snapping myself out of his hold. "You can save him. You have to."

"You don't understand." He straightens his shirt and his eyes fade to a dark green.

"You said you make deals." I look down at Charlie and I silence the little voice inside of me. The one that pleads with me. That begs me not to do this. "I want to make one. A deal."

"No," he stands, shaking his head. "You really don't."

"Name it. Anything."

"Don't do this, Bella. Not with him," Angela whispers and Masen lifts his hand, pulling her back up the wall.

"What you're asking me to do… You can't take that back. I can't promise he'll be the Charlie you know either." I can see the storm in his eyes and the smile on his lips.

He may say no, but he wants me to make the deal. I can see written all over his face.

"I do." He says, answering my thoughts. "But you may not like the consequences."

"I don't care." I brush the hair off Charlie's forehead, kissing the spot between his eyes. "Please don't take him from me, too."

Masen sighs, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt.

"Don't do this." Angela struggles against his bindings and he snaps his teeth.

"That's enough out of you." With a flick of his wrist Angela flies out of the room, the door slamming behind her.

"You'll save him?" I watch as the lock turns and look back up at him.

"For a price," he tells me. The black ink of wings slowly disappear from his arms as he looks me in the eyes. "Turn his face toward me."

"I'm right here, Daddy. We're gonna fix you. I promise." I kiss him once more before turning his face toward the ceiling.

Wings, dark as night, spread wide, enveloping the room. I watch him take a blade from his belt. I see a glimpse of engravings, like the wound on my palm, before he flips it. He whispers words, his lips against the steel, before bringing it to his arm.

"Your turn." The blade is covered in blood so dark it's black.

"What?"

"I need your arm. His blood runs through you. You're making a sacrifice for him." I shove my arm at him wincing as the blade slides across it. "It'll heal."

He kisses the spot on my arm before his lips touch mine. The feeling is electric. Like he lit me on fire and burned my soul.

"Masen." I want to ask him why, but I feel Charlie's body convulse in my arms. "What's happening?"

"Shh." His body is still, but his wings move, and the noise they make hurts my ears. As if each feather is screaming, pleading for something.

"No." He snaps just as my fingers move to touch them. "Take his hands."

I take my other hand off Charlie's face and bring his hands into mine.

Masen relaxes and kneels beside us. He touches Charlie's face and whispers into his ear before his lips hover above my father's.

I watch in awe with tears in my eyes.

The man that terrifies me is breathing life into the man I murdered. I forget to breathe as a dark smoke leaves Charlie's mouth and escapes into Masen's, replaced with an almost grey. It creeps slowly, wrapping itself around my father, never touching me.

Masen grabs my hand, pulling it away from Charlie's and lacing his fingers with mine.

"Don't let go," he whispers, but his lips don't move and I can feel him inside of me.

I can feel the death. The life. A hollow feeling that creeps up my spine, piercing my bones and marking my soul. Every stab into Charlie's chest rips into mine making me jump and scream out. I feel the blood dripping down my chest, but when I try to touch it Masen stops me.

"What are you doing to me?" I stare at him wide eyed.

"You have to die for him," he says, looking up at me. His eyes are possessive, black mixed with a dusting of grey as his wings surround us. They block out everything. The world, the blood, my screams when I feel the knife enter my chest.

Again and again. Pain so terrifying, so intense. It slices through me, burning everything. Consuming me.

The last bit of smoke leaves Masen's lips and swirls into Charlie's. It's like night and day. Purple eyelids turn pink, an empty, silent chest begins to beat. I press my face to his heart, listening and letting his blood cover me.

"You did it." I smile as tears fall rapidly down my face.

"Bella!" Angela screams, beating against the door. "Get away from him!"

"I can't undo what's about to happen." He pulls me away from Charlie and off the bed.

"Charlie's going to be okay, isn't he?" I try to shake the feeling inside of me. It's not unpleasant, just… different. Like something is taking hold of me. Burrowing it's way deeper inside.

"That's up to him." He looks down at my father and pulls me closer. It's how I know what's inside of me. His touch.

Masen.

"Your eyes." I touch his face, watching the black fade into green.

"People are going to come and take you. It's been written. Don't fight them." His wings pull in close to us and I can feel them. Like they have a pulse.

"Why do your eyes change?" I can't stop looking at them. Can't stop touching him. Even when I try it's like I'm locked in place, unable to move away.

"Remember everything I do is to protect you, okay?" His face turns tender, the hard lines from before disappearing.

"Am I going to die?"

"Not yet." He smiles and I feel it in bones.

"Are you going to kill me?" I hear him laugh, but it's inside of me. In my head.

"What I said before?" He brushes his lips against mine. "Don't forget that and don't trust Angela."

"I won't." He crushes me to him, kissing me with fire and leaving me breathless and alone.

"Move!" An EMT shoves me away, and moves to Charlie's side pulling him onto a gurney.

"I'm so sorry, Bella. I tried to stop him." Angela is at my side and holding me tight.

She feels wrong.

"What?" I shake my head, trying to clear the fog left behind by Masen.

"I should have protected you better. I'm so sorry." She cries as they carry Charlie out of the room and down to the ambulance.

"Where are they taking him?"

"To Fork's General." One of Charlie's deputies interrupts us, stepping in front of me.

"What are you doing?" I eye him, anger pulsing under my skin as he puts a firm hand on my shoulder.

"We need to ask you some questions." I know the look he's giving me. The one that says I'm in trouble. That I messed up.

"I need to go with my father." I try to push past him, to go to Charlie, but he grabs me harder.

Angela screams and argues with the deputy as they place me in cuffs and into the back of his car. She promises me her father will fix this, but I can feel the air shifting, and Masen's words sting my ears once again.

I spend the night in jail. I answer questions. I talk to someone named Alice.

My court appointed psychiatrist.

She evaluates me.

They tell me Charlie's in a coma. That I'm to blame. My prints cover the knife they found in my bed.

I don't deny it.

I think of telling them about Masen, but I hear his whisperings, and I say nothing.

I let the feeling from before consume me as they talk. The crushing in my chest, the tingling of my spine. I give into it.

To Charlie's death.

Alice checks on me often, she's with me for my first appearance in court. Telling the judge she'd like to hold me in the hospital. That I'm not in my right mind.

"If you'd read over the papers I gave the court." She tells the judge, who eyes me.

He looks over the pictures, the statements.

I laugh when the judges face turns to bone and flames. It starts out as a chuckle, before I'm bent over with tears in my eyes and laugh til it hurts.

Alice says nothing. She grabs my hand, burning my skin and pulls me out of the small room and away from the judge.

I ignore her after that. I talk to no one. I eat nothing. I don't sleep.

I punish myself and I think about Charlie. About the blood.

And Masen.

It takes less than twenty-four hours after the judge sees me to admit me.

"You'll have court in a month." Alice says. "For now you'll be staying where I work."

I nod and watch the trees pass.

"You'll be a good girl won't you?" I look up from her in the backseat.

Eyes like a cat's stare back at me with a smile too wide and a face too pale.

"I'd hate for something to happen to you." I say nothing, just stare at her pale blue eyes as we drive down a dark, dirt road. "It's a big place afterall."

Her laughter fills the car, making my skin crawl.

"I'm sure you would." I whisper to myself and I close my eyes, letting the nightmares take me away.

**Having fun yet?**


	8. Chapter 8

**SM owns Twilight. **

**Ham and Satan own my soul.**

**All mistakes are mine. **

**Asylum **

**Chapter Eight**

"Are they treating you okay?" Angela asks, sitting across from me and fidgeting with her bag as she looks around.

Today is Wednesday, which means family day. It's my third so far, and Angela has come to see me every time. Her smile, the one that used to warm me and make all the bad things disappear, is tainted now. Instead, I only see questions and hear alarm bells in my head. Now, I only want her to go away.

"I get three meals a day and all the happy pills I want." I shrug. "Nothing has changed."

"I brought you another book." She reaches inside her bag with a smile. "It might have some answers you want."

"Did _you_ bring me answers?" I lean against the table. She can bring me every book in the world, but I want them from her―her words―not some written legend.

"It's complicated, Bells. I can't tell you everything." She sighs. "I'm not allowed."

"So you keep saying." A humorless laugh bubbles up within me and I begin to sound unhinged, like Jessica. She's our resident whack-job. The one who likes to have sex with corpses.

She says the colder the better. Nothing like a stiffy from a dead guy.

I shudder and turn back to Ang. "I don't trust you."

"I'm still the same Angela. Nothing has changed." She reaches for me and I lean back, afraid of her touch.

"Everything has changed," I snap.

"I am sorry." She looks away, pushing a book toward me. I run my fingers over the old leather that binds it. It's deep red with a satin bookmark and an ancient looking silver clasp that holds it together.

"For what?"

"That he happened to you." Her eyes drift back to me and I can see the fear behind them. It's gone when she sees my fingers on her book.

"Charlie is doing better. Breathing on his own, but I'm sure you know that." She says, but I didn't. They don't tell me anything. Not unless it pertains to my well being.

"They keep telling me he isn't even real, you know." I change the subject, not wanting to talk about Charlie. "They say my medicine will make him go away."

She grabs my hand, refusing to let me pull away. "He's very real, Bella. Don't ever doubt that."

"Are you like him?" I look down at our hands, clasped just like they used to be anytime I was upset.

"He was once like me, or at least he could have been."

"Are you going to hurt me?" Her eyes snap to mine, wide with shock.

"No." A tear falls down her face and she smiles at me before the light above the door begins to blink.

"Will you come back?" I ask as she gets up to leave.

"Always." She moves around the table and pulls me into a hug. "I'll never leave you."

When she pulls away she slips a paper into my hand and leaves without another word.

"I'd like to welcome Isabella to group today, ladies."

I get tentative waves from the four other women in the room. Each one wears the same outfit as me. White slacks, a blue button up that is two times too big for any of us, and slippers.

It looks more like a sleepover than a group of crazy women together talking about their problems.

"Would you like to tell everyone a little bit about yourself?" Alice looks at me and I stare right back.

"I'm clinically depressed and I see a man that _you _tell me isn't real. Anything else?"

"Isabella," she chides removing her glasses as I hover at the door, refusing to move inside.

"Alice," I mock. "I'm not talking about my family. You can kiss my ass."

She ignores my comments. She has since our first interaction.

"I want to know about the real you." She believes I say the things I do because I don't want to be here.

No shit.

This is my life now. This place.

Alice knows all this. She knows my days are filled with talking about a man they believe I've made up and sessions they demand I attend. I take my pills twice a day now, and I obey their rules.

I eat their shitty food and I walk their washed out halls.

She knows everything I've done, or been accused of. She walks into our hour long talks with a folder five inches thick and tries her best to bring up memories I don't want to think about.

To ask me relive those memories, or to ask about my mundane day is insulting. Terrifying.

I wake up. I bathe. I eat. I sleep. Sometimes I whistle. Most days I stare at the lake beyond the property.

It sparkles and reflects the sunlight that never quite reaches our windows. I daydream about it. Touching it. Swimming in it. Being outside of this place.

There are days I scream and others where I don't talk at all. I've been here six weeks and I've only made one friend.

Emmett, my orderly. He's a bear of a man that everyone is afraid of, and he's the only person who doesn't look at me like I'm insane. His smiles are genuine, and when we talk, he doesn't judge me.

Unfortunately I know the women in this room. That doesn't mean they need to know me.

"Would anyone like to tell Isabella about themselves then?" Alice asks, deciding not to push me anymore.

I sigh and make my way over to Jessica, who has her hand on Lauren's thigh, and take a seat. I don't want to sit near Alice. Anytime I do, I can feel the cold radiating from her. Like death.

It doesn't help that her shadow moves in unnatural ways whenever I look at it. I've seen it's claws in our sessions. The small wings and the way it shrinks the longer she talks.

The further away from her I can be, the better.

"I won't bite," Jessica whispers, pulling my attention away from Alice.

"Esme?" Alice raises her brow and Esme, the oldest of the group, turns to me.

There is a doll in her lap and she pulls it closer to her chest before she starts.

"Would like to see my baby?" She smiles and I smile right back. I've seen her in our rec room. She rocks her doll there, singing lullabies to it until light's out.

"She's been talking to that baby every damn day. You'd think she'd remember she killed the damn thing," Jessica mumbles with her thumb nail firmly in her mouth.

"You shut the fuck up you dead humping bitch!" Esme growls and her eyes turn cold as she stuffs the doll under her shirt.

"Enough!"

"Breastfeeding?" Jessica giggles.

"Ew. No nipples!" Victoria pipes up from her corner of the room and pulls out her sanitizer, scrubbing her hands over and over.

"Don't forget to count to ten, Vicky." Jessica rolls her eyes and Esme begins to rock in her seat.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I ask ready to launch myself at Jessica. "Leave her the hell alone and go find a popsicle."

"You want to suck on her tits, too?"

"Isabella. Jessica," Alice warns. I grab the side of my chair and dig my nails in the sides as I try to calm down. To find a happy place.

Alice said to look for anywhere that makes you breath a little easier. All I can think about is hurting her and the smile it would bring to Masen's face.

"She killed her baby, you know? Stuffed him in her oven with carrots and set that sucker on fire." Lauren leans around Jessica to tell me, her crooked teeth showing as she smiles.

"Says the girl who believes God talks to her." I roll my eyes.

"Him and the orderlies. He says you're gonna die, by the way. That Hell is gonna swallow that dirty little soul of yours for trying kill your daddy. Did you enjoy it? Slicing Charlie open? I bet you got off on it." She smiles at me, rubbing her temples.

I'm out of my seat before I even think about it. I knock Jessica out of her chair and I leap at Lauren. Her throat is in my hands and she screams.

"Shut up!" I scream. I can feel her blood pumping and her heart beating under my fingers.

"EMMETT!"

Hands are on me, trying to pull me off Lauren, but I dig my fingers deeper into her flesh, willing her die. I laugh as tears fall down her face and she gasps for air, all the while wishing the light would leave her pale blue eyes.

I giggle when she slumps in her chair, but I don't let go. Fuck her for talking about Charlie, and fuck her for saying his name.

"Bella! Let her go. She doesn't know what she's saying. Just let her go." Emmett pries me off and Alice rushes to Lauren.

"He's gonna get you." Lauren sings from the floor.

"You bitch!" I lunge at her again but Emmett's arms are around me, dragging me out of the room.

"That's enough!" He yells but the anger inside of me is too strong. Caged for what feels like years and ready to take over.

"Let me go." I try to claw away from him, but he has me by the waist as he pulls my arms behind my back. "She started it."

"Doesn't matter." I feel a prick in my side just before the lights begin to fade and the walls darken.

"No." I breath out and shadows begin to move. Bigger this time. Much bigger.

Instead of staying against the wall they reach out to me, their long bony fingers trying to pull me away from Emmett's hold. I can feel them on me. Some cold as snow, others hotter than fire.

"NO!" I scream, feeling a tug on my leg and teeth on my thigh.

"Bella stop fighting me." Emmett's voice echos in my ear, but it's drowned out by the screams of the shadows as they close in on me.

One by one they begin saying my name, smoke puffing from their mouths. Smaller shadows leap from their eyes and take hold of my body. They climbing up me inch by inch, until I feel them on my face, pulling at my hair and whispering threats in my ear.

Each one takes the same form. Tiny wings, some broken, most torn, adorn their backs. Their hollow, mist filled eyes rake over my body, and serpent like tongues lick their thin lips.

"Get them off me!" I try to push them away, and cry out for Masen. The shadows laugh deep vicious laughs, and continue to creep closer.

"I think she's having a seizure." I hear someone say, but the shadows keep coming. Each one finds a new place to grab me. I feel each of their tiny claws as they dig into my flesh and I hear their laughter when I scream in pain.

"Hand her to me." I feel hands on me. Hands that remind me of Masen's. Soft and possessive, kind and demanding. They make me smile even as the shadows try to eat away at me. Their teeth slicing into my skin, opening me up over and over.

"Isabella?" Someone shakes me and the shadows scatter as if something has terrified them. Each of them run as fast as they can to get away from me.

When I look to the wall, the shadows I see are different. They cower away from me instead of feasting on my fear.

I feel a warm hand on my back and another under my knees holding me tight.

They aren't Emmett's. I know his arms, his hands. They've kept me from falling. Held me when I cried.

I look up, expecting to see Masen, but I only a pair of similar eyes and dirty blonde hair.

"Who are you?" I ask, feeling the light fade around me, only this time it's because of the drugs coursing in my system.

"You're safe," He tells me with a smile. "You can sleep. I've got you."

With his hand rubbing my back as he hums a song I've never heard, I close my eyes and drift away.

When I wake, dull grey light filters through the window of my room.

I rub my eyes and try to sit up. The fuzz from the drugs and the memory of the shadows begins to return like a slap to the face.

I can still feel them on me, like insects under my skin. Crawling and buzzing and swimming in my blood.

I begin to scratch at my arm, but freeze when I hear someone clearing their throat.

"Glad to see you're awake." My eyes go wide and my body rigid at the voice.

Emmett's the only person besides Alice who has been in my room. I haven't even seen Masen in here, even though I can feel him watching me when I try to sleep.

"Who are you?" I grab my pillow pulling it to my chest, feeling exposed. Open.

"I'm Dr. Cullen, but you can call me Carlisle." He reaches his hand out to shake mine, but I only stare at it. "I'll be overseeing your case until court."

"Alice is my therapist."

"Ah, yes. Well, she believes you need another set of eyes and ears, so to speak." He laughs and leans against the small counter in my room.

"What does that mean?" I narrow my eyes, wondering what Alice has told him.

"It means we'll be seeing more of each other, Isabella." His smile is disturbing and much too excited.

"I'd like to be left alone now." I shift, uneasy at how close he is. At how much I actually want him to stay.

"You're afraid of me?" He pushes the sleeve of his white shirt up and I catch a glimpse of ink peeking out.

"No." I lie. "I'm just tired."

"Of course. You've been through quite a lot recently." He drags a chair across from me and sits. "Would you like to talk about it?"

I tilt my head to the side as his eyes, green like Masen's, shift to my hand.

"Your scars?" He asks when my fingers begin to trace the line on their own.

I put my hands in my lap, clasping them tight. "They're none of your business."

"I'm afraid it is." He leans forward and my stomach flips. "I'm here to help you, Isabella. You don't need to feel so alone anymore."

"You don't know anything about me," I snap.

"True," he laughs. "You know what they say though?"

I just stare at him, wishing he would take the hint and leave me alone. There is something about him, something that reminds me of Masen. It has me too comfortable with him and I find myself wanting to reach out. To touch him.

To see if he feels like Masen, too.

He stands when I don't answer. I sigh in relief until I feel his hands on my shoulder and his hot breath on my ear.

"The Devil's in the details, Isabella." His lips touch my temple and I shiver, unable to speak. Unable to move.

I feel his lips curved into a smile against my skin and my body goes limp.

"You should get some rest now." With that, he flips off my light and leaves me, alone and terrified.

**Did we enjoy the good doctor? **

**If anyone is interested in getting the shit scared out of them, Livie Liv, RaggDolly and I have created a Halloween blog. **

**We'll be writing prompts and a fic for your scaring pleasure starting October 1st.**

**TheUnholytrinityofhorror dot blogspot dot com**


	9. Chapter 9

**SM owns Twilight. **

**Ham and Satan own my heart. **

**Thank you ladies!**

**Music for the chapter: Radiohead's All I Need & Barbarossa's The Load. **

**Asylum **

**Chapter 9 **

My fingers trace handwritten words on delicate paper. I try not to bear down, afraid I'll rip through the pages, but as time passes, as light turns to dark, I can feel my hand becoming heavy.

Each passage pulls me in. Reading a part of Angela I had not known before is almost too much to take.

I spend days poring over the book. Reading and making mental notes as I go.

It isn't until halfway through that I get a real glimpse of her.

"You were an Angel," I whisper into my empty room and quickly turn the page.

_They cut my wings. I can still feel the harsh razor-sharp blade as it sliced through them. Still hear the thud as they hit the floor below. My own screams wake me each night as it replays in my head. _

_I even see their faces. Sad and pitying when they wipe the blade clean, whispering words too quiet for my new ears. _

_Worst of all? I now have two scars centered in my back. Reminders that I was chosen, that I was thrown from my home. I should feel grateful. I should feel humbled for being the one she wanted. _

A tear rolls down my cheek as I reread her words. I picture my best friend, alone and hurting, and my fingers tighten on the page. Angry at the people who did this to her.

Angry at myself for not being able to trust her.

_Humanity, I've learned, is something to be feared._

_I feel as though I am an outsider, as if other people can see through my glamour. Like they can see past the pretty picture I've displayed for them. A happy smile and terrified eyes. _

_I've been here exactly one year and I can not find him. There is no trace. No scent. Just death and the realization that he does not mean to be found. _

_She will be displeased with the findings, but forgiving as always. _

I flip through the book, watching the dates fly by, careful as I go, trying to find the _she _Angela speaks of.

_I saw him with her today. A small girl, filled with hope in the arms of man, a demon, who looks at her with a flicker of something I can not discern. Something foreign. I watch his wings, how they spread around them when she plays. They mean her no harm, only protection. It's apparent in the way he looks at her. It confuses me. _

_When he smiles, the girl does not run in fear. _

_She's happy. Hugging him and pulling him all over her house as her mother gardens in the yard. _

_I report back soon after, and am asked to only watch. _

I sit back in my seat and stretch. The image of Angela is screwing with my head as I look down at her book. A part of me wants to burn it, to unread what's been read. To erase it from my memory, but I can't. The nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach wants more.

_I find it very easy to summon Masen. I'm not proud of my actions, using an innocent to say his name. His true name. It is the only way. _

_After almost 6 years of searching for him, it is my only choice. I can feel the shift. The unease in the air. The demons, those horrid creatures that surrounded Isabella's home alert me to it. They surrounded her, readying themselves for battle. _

_Hungry with want and thirsty with need. _

_Before I know what was happening I use what little power she left me and summon him. _

_He finds me shortly after, but won't answer my questions. He refuses to leave the girl. To go more than a few hours without her. It's alarming to see. To understand. _

_He says Isabella is none of our concern. She's payment for a debt owed. That she is his. _

_Something in his eyes tell me he's lying. That she's much more. She has to be. Why would they send me otherwise? Why cut my wings so I can walk and talk amongst them? Why put me with her? _

_It takes little time for him to threaten me. When I offer him protection, a place to get away from the Hells below. When I mention Isabella. _

_His onyx wings spread, blocking out the sun. The sky. The world. Their razor sharp tips glisten in the light as they shudder. _

_She's important to him. More important than I had imagined. Than we had imagined. _

_Demon wings leave a nasty scar. I'll most likely have to wear glasses to hide what he's done. _

_It's the day of Renee's funeral and he stands in the shadows, watching her. The dark shadows, his birds, stand at the ready at his feet. With hollow eyes they watch me, their heads twisting and their feathers ruffling. Long jagged teeth are bared and their talons dig deep into the earth as I try to remain motionless. _

_I can't help the tears that fall from my human eyes though. _

_I can't imagine the pain that child bears and I never want to. _

_Masen stops me when they leave, pain in his eyes as Charlie takes her far away from this place. _

_He tells me of the deal, but little more. He says it's dangerous for me, for her. I don't want to believe him, but I feel it. The change in the air, the howling in the winds. I feel the creatures under the earth as they move below us. Their need is so strong. Like something is pulling them forward. _

_Something is after Isabella, and when I look up at Masen, I know he feels it too. The edges of his dark green eyes blaze white with anger as he looks behind me. Her hands are on the glass as if she can see him. _

_How can Masen, a monster, care so much for her? How can he look at her with so much emotion? _

_She sends me to her after that. Changing me once again. Promising me no harm. _

_I am to help her. To befriend her. To protect her. _

_Before I know it, I'm with Bella everyday. Our lives become entangled and even though they tell me I can't; I love her. _

I shut the book, trying to wrap my mind around what I've read. About Masen. Angela. A world I didn't even know existed.

I look out my window and sigh at the sun rising in the distance. Day after day for the last week it's been like this.

I spend all night pouring over her journal, and I still don't understand anything.

"What are you reading?" I jump, and almost fall from my chair as he laughs. When I turn I see Masen lounging on my bed, a smile across his face and his eyes closed.

His leather boots are crossed at the ankles and his arms are behind his head. His tattoos swirl over his arms, each fading as he flexes his muscles.

It's mesmerizing to watch. To see something so odd. So magical.

I don't know what it is about him. What draws me in. What makes me hate him.

Want him.

He isn't even looking at me and I feel like he's rummaging in my soul. Opening doors to places inside me I've tried to hide, even from myself.

When I look at him, I feel something I don't want. A longing. A desperation.

It's like I've lost something under a bookshelf. My fingers can feel its edges, almost wrap themselves around it. I'm frantic for it. And the further I reach, the further it falls away.

It's disturbing.

"You shouldn't be here," I whisper, trying to stop thinking about him as I tuck the book into the only drawer of my desk and shove it closed.

"Did you not miss me?" He cracks an eye open and turns his head toward me.

My stomach flutters when he smiles up at me.

I don't answer him. I have nothing to say. Nothing that won't make me sound even more crazy. I have questions, but I doubt he'll answer truthfully, if at all.

"Isabella," he whispers and the word wraps itself around my body, making me shiver. "I've been watching. You've been very busy."

"I know." I sigh, turning back to my desk. I have to look away from him, to stop the frantic beating of my heart I know he hears.

"Are you enjoying yourself here?" He sits up, his boots hitting the floor and echoing in my small room.

I choke on a laugh and my nails dig into my palm, drawing blood. "Is that a joke?"

"There's that temper I've missed." I hear his lighter as he strikes it. The unmistakable scent of smoke filling the air.

"They'll be here soon." I look back at him, uncomfortable with the way he looks at me. Like I'm something to consume. And for a moment I wonder what it would feel like.

"We aren't doing anything they'd disapprove of. Unless you want to." His eyes sparkle with mischief before he releases a plume of smoke into the air. Two perfectly shaped rings float upward before hitting my ceiling.

"Masen." I shut my eyes and shake my head. "Please don't do this to me. I feel like I'm going crazy and I can't stop you. I can't stop any of this. I can't take back what I've done. I can't fix Charlie. And you keep showing up, and it's like you're playing some game with me. Some sick game I don't even know the rules to."

"You aren't crazy. Not completely." He runs his hand through his hair, brushing it out of his eyes.

"And then you do that." I roll my eyes, my head already aching from being so close to him. "Is everything a joke to you?"

"You're awfully dramatic today," he laughs as I twist around in my chair, trying to will him to disappear.

"And you're enjoying yourself way too much," I snap back.

"Bella…" The corner of his eyes tighten as he tosses his cigarette to the floor, stomping it out.

"No!" I shout. "Don't you see? Nothing is the same anymore. Not just Charlie or Angela, but everything. I see things, Masen. Things I know aren't real, shadows, eyes, faces. What did you do to me?"

I've learned if I focus hard enough I can block out the things that seem to haunt me. When I'm angry or around Masen they seem to move closer, ignoring my desperate plea to leave me alone.

My heart is hammering in my chest, beating wildly against my ribs. I try to catch my breath. Try to look anywhere but at him.

"I told you things would change," he says, his eyes now filled with concern. "You have to understand, Bella. From the moment you were born, you weren't meant for this world. Every time they brought you back, when your heart stopped, it only brought those things closer to you. It brought me closer to you. It's not something I can stop, and I don't want it to either. I'm sorry."

"Are you really?" I laugh at him. "You seem to be enjoying this. My torture."

"That's enough, Isabella." The tattoos on his arms begin to slowly fade in and out as he speaks. The air around him buzzes and crackles. A small creature, no bigger than my hand, peeks over his shoulder. Its dead eyes on me as it licks its lips.

"Like that. That right there." I point, holding onto what little courage I have left. "Those things aren't natural."

"They won't hurt you."

"Oh really? Like the ones in the hallway that tried to eat me? Were those love bites? Their sick, demented way of showing me they were only concerned? Or was that another one of your games?" I hiss, my entire body shaking with rage and fear as the shadow creeps over his shoulder.

"Enough," he grounds out, his eyes flashing red.

"Oh, so that's all you have to say and I'm supposed to just stop?" My laughter becomes louder. Manic. "Fuck off, Masen."

"That isn't a very nice thing to say to someone who saved your father." He mocks, with a pleased smile.

I freeze, shocked by his words. Angry at him for bringing him up. For even thinking about Charlie.

"You need to leave." I stand, wishing they would unlock our doors already. That I could be anywhere but here. That the images of my dad, the blood, would stop.

"Is that really what you want?" He's in front of me before I can blink. His warm hands on my neck, his thumbs rubbing along my jaw. I taste his breath on my lips.

Honey and smoke. Lethal like a drug.

I try to shake him off, but my body betrays me and I lean into him.

"Dr. Carlisle says you aren't real. Just my mind protecting me." Even as I say the words I taste the bitter lie on my tongue.

"Who?" His eyes narrow and the green begins to fade into a bright, icy white.

In the distance I can hear Emmett rolling his cart down the hall, the wheels squeaking as he hums.

"You have to go." The words sting my lips and my stomach flips.

"What doctor, Isabella? Who did you just say?" He pulls me to him, clutching my face in his hands. "This is important. Do you understand that?"

I look up at him in confusion. The feeling of his skin on mine makes every nerve explode inside me.

"Who was the doctor?" He puts his hand on the door and I watch it shimmer under his palm. A shadow stops underneath and I hear Emmett's humming stop, before the cart begins moving again.

"Dr. Cullen?" I say, not understanding the big deal about my doctor. "He's been seeing me for days now. You've been watching me. You should know that."

He curses under his breath, muttering words I can't understand. His tattoos disappear completely as his wings spring forth, spreading across the wall. They inch closer to the ceiling, the tips of his feathers pulsating as his shoulders shake.

My eyes go wide as a growl tears through his chest and his lips curl into a feral smile. There is something very dangerous about the way he looks, the way he touches me.

Possessive and protective.

"Masen?" I ask, confused at what has him so angry.

"If he's here it's too late." His hand caresses my face, a tender action that surprises me.

"Too late?" I ask. "What does that mean? Is he like Alice? Like that thing?"

The shadow from before now cowers in fear on the corner of my bed.

"No. Alice is harmless, a watcher, much like the shadows. There are a few of those here already. Carlisle is much, much worse," he sneers and I see the fire in his eyes. The anger. "The things in the hall, what tried to hurt you, those were Carlisle's pets. Not mine."

My knees buckle as the weight of his words hit me. His arms wrap around me, catching me before I fall to the floor. I feel the brushing of feathers as he places me on the bed and bends down between my legs. I try to catch my breath, try to stop the ache as his fingers trace the palm of my hand.

I can't wrap my head around much worse. I've seen the shadows that lurk at the edge of my vision. Eyes that bulge and mouths that open too wide. I've seen smoke rolling under my door and heard cries fill my room that aren't my own.

I've felt the light touches of things I can't see. Their dark whispers in my ears as I try to sleep. They fill my dreams much like my waking hours. Always there. Always watching.

"Better?" He asks, taking my hand in his.

"No." I look up at him with tears in my eyes as my chest aches for more of his touch. "Why won't they leave me alone?"

"You're special. They want what they can't have, Bella." He kisses my cheek, and I feel him smile against my skin, his lips moving to my ear. "They want what's mine."

He strikes like a snake, his movements too fast for my eyes. His fingers dig deep into my hips as he pulls me forward. Closer than I've ever been to anyone. Smashing me to his chest, our bodies flush, as he whispers words I cannot understand in my ear.

Lips scorch my skin and my body trembles as his wings wrap themselves around us.

There is nothing between us. I try to breathe, to find my voice. I don't know if I want to tell him to stop or beg him for more.

My fingers travel on their own, winding themselves in his hair as his lips press against my skin. Heat consumes me, brushing its flames against my heart, and exploding inside me. Everything is on fire, from the tips of my fingers, to the ends of my hair.

"What's happening to me?" I whisper, panting against him. His hand travels to the small of my back, his fingers dancing over my spine.

"I've wanted to see a piece of me on you for so long." Teeth drag across my flesh and I bite back a moan. "Let me mark you, Bella. Let me taste you."

"Masen," I sigh, leaning into him.

"Just say the words. Tell me I can have you." He pulls back, staring at me. His green eyes paralyzing me.

"It's too much. I feel too much." I shake my head, trying to clear the daze that seems to possess me anytime he's near.

"I need you." It's not his words that stop my heart, but the look in his eyes. Vulnerable and desperate. "If you don't say no, if you don't stop me…" His words trail and I can't bring myself to stop him.

I don't want to.

I scream as he pierces my skin. Pain mixes with pleasure, and my vision blurs as I feel him drinking me in. His hands greedy in my hair as he moans into my neck.

I try to get closer. To feel every inch of him, but nothing works and it's over before I can beg him for more.

"Thank you," he kisses my lips, releasing me from his hold.

"What did you do?" I feel heavy, like a weight is on my chest.

When I look up I see the stains, a dark red trail down the corner of his mouth as it spreads into a dark smile.

"I did what I should have done months ago." His thumb caresses my neck as his eyes burn into me, making me shiver. "I made you mine."

**How about I don't keep Masen away so long next time? **

**Anyone want some horror? Livie, Ragg Dolly, and myself have started a drabble Master of Puppets. Check it out in my favorites on my profile. **


	10. Chapter 10

**I owe a HUGE thank you to Satan for getting my head back in the game. Thank you Ham for questioning me and making me see things just weren't working. **

**These ladies are beyond awesome. **

**Asylum**

**Chapter 10 **

His thumb leaves my skin and he takes a slow, calculating step back. I feel the loss instantly. My body aches for him, and every nerve screams the further away he gets.

I want to step forward, to grab his hand and demand him to touch me again, but the haze that filled my mind only moments ago slowly unravels. I feel its fingers as it brushes at my consciousness. They loosen, and slowly, so slowly, they fade away.

"Masen." I blink over and over until I can focus. I look up and his possessive eyes are on me. Hungry and needing.

"What are you feeling?" His fingers twitch and I know he wants to touch me. To be closer to me, but I fight the urge that builds inside me. The pain of him so far away.

"What?" I ask, confused. I feel loss, but I also feel anger. It bubbles and flicks at my nerves.

I feel hate.

"Do you remember anything? Who I am? Who you are?"

I take another step back and the fog clears a little more. This time I can think. I can see.

I can feel it. What he's done.

"You did it again." I grab my neck and turn to the mirror. Anger floods every inch of me as I brush my hair to the side. Two crimson dots stain my pale skin.

Two reminders that I let him win. That I let him take advantage. Again.

I look up at Masen's reflection behind me and he narrows his eyes.

"How are you doing that?" he asks, moving toward me. I jump back, desperate to get away from him.

"Don't you fucking dare," Grabbing the pen on my desk, I swing at him. "If you touch me…"

"You'll what?" he laughs, knocking the pen out of my hand and onto the floor. The tattoos along his skin fade up his arms as his eyes flash bright green. The dark ink shimmers and moves like a snake as his black wings rise.

I sense his anger in the room. Like a fog it surrounds us, whirling and twisting its way up my spine. He's pissed, but I want revenge. I taste it, sour on my tongue, acid in my stomach.

Fuck him.

"You think that's going to hurt me?" His boot stomps the pen and ink sprays the walls. "You can try. I enjoy it when you're angry. You're absolutely beautiful. And so fucking lethal, but you have no idea the power you hold, Bella. The secrets you have locked away inside." He shakes his head and adds. "No idea at all."

Red fills my vision and I lift the chair, slamming it across his chest. His wings block the blow, looking even larger and more deadly than I've ever seen them.

They don't frighten me anymore, though. The only thing I feel when I look at them is white hot rage. It lances at my skin and burns my insides. It's in my blood, rushing into my heart and begging for a way out.

"You've made everyone think I'm crazy. You made _me _think I'm fucking crazy." I grind my teeth and move to the wall. "You keep playing with me. Over and over. You make me see things, Masen, and now this. You manipulate me. You talk about my powers, about what I can do, who I could be. You act like I'm nothing, but then sometimes…" I shake my head.

"What?"

"When I look at you, like when you saved Charlie. Sometimes I think I see something more, but then you make me feel like a fool. You're poison. Like a disease that won't go away. You keep torturing me and drawing me in. You hurt me and then pretend to care about me." I laugh and tears fall down my face. "You bit me!"

I snatch my brush from the table and throw it at his face.

"I did that to protect you." His fists clench. "And now I'm tired of this. You need breakfast, something to calm you maybe. We can talk later."

"Protect me?" I shake my head and laugh. "An asset, right? You see me as your property. You are so fucking full of yourself."

"And you're a little girl who really needs to learn some manners." His wings shake behind him and dark shadows curve around them. "Would you rather I let them have you? I would so love to watch you bleed. I'd rather it by my hand, Bella, but things can be arranged."

The smile that crawls up his lips is demented as his eyes roam over my body. I can't stop the shiver that runs over me. The reactions I have to him make me feel out of control. I snap.

"You're psychotic. You've done nothing but fuck with me. Made me your puppet. Is that what I am to you? Some sick little toy?" I scream so loud my chest burns and my body shakes.

All I see when I look at him is destruction and death. I want to choke him until the life leaves his eyes and smile down at him the same cold way he smiles at me.

"It would do you good to remember I still hold Charlie's life in my hands," he sneers and my eyes go wide. "I could kill him with a snap of my fingers. In fact…"

"You wouldn't dare," I say, but I know he would. He'd do anything to hurt me.

"Oh the things I would do to punish you. Charlie means nothing to me. The fact that you love him? That only makes me want him dead even more."

"I would never forgive you." My heart struggles to beat as I try to keep myself from falling to the floor.

"And I love that you think I actually care." His laugh echoes around the room and the hair on my skin rises.

"Fuck you!"

"You're testing my patience. You should really stop before I lose what little I have left." His eyes burn into me and his jaw tightens. Every nerve I have is on fire. My heart pounds in my chest and defiance fills me.

"I hate you!" I say, the words coming out cold and tasting bitter.

"That's enough." He grabs my arm and I slap him across the face. The sound echoes in my small room and I gasp when I see a bright red mark along his cheek.

My hand stings and trembles when he releases me. I wait for him to react, but he says nothing. Does nothing. Only his wings rise higher, casting shadows around us.

I reach up, feeling my anger pulse inside the palm of my hand as it flies through the air. He lets me get within an inch of his face before his fingers wrap around my arm and he slams my back into the wall.

All the air in my lungs leaves when I look up at him.

"Do that again and I'll show you what I'm really capable of." His words slice into me, cutting me to the bone. "Do you want to piss me off?"

"What are you going to do? Send the birds again? Make me hurt someone else?" I stand very still, focusing on the haze that tries to control me. I try to block him. To block the whispering inside my head. The laughter that sounds so much like his. "You killed my mother, tried to make me kill my friends, and God knows what I did to Charlie. You can go to hell for all I care."

"I said enough." My back hits the wall again and I see the ink along his neck fade.

"This is your fault," I seeth.

He's on me before I can blink. His forehead against mine, pressing me hard into the wall. His hot breath is on my lips, and I see my reflection in his eyes. I'm nothing more than prey, terrified and caged as he holds me.

"You want to see how far you can push me? Fine." His teeth snap and his fingers dig into my skin. "I told you I could play nice, but you've forced my hand. I hope you said goodbye to your father, Bella."

"No." I try to break free, but he pushes me harder.

"I warned you." He lips turn hard and vicious as he laughs at me.

"That's my father!" I cry and fight against him, clawing at any part of him I can reach.

"I would think you'd be a little more grateful that I let you live."

"I wish you hadn't," I snarl and he flinches back. His eyes recover quickly. The hurt is replaced by a piercing icy white and I try not to cower.

"So do I." Three words. Three words and my eyes goes wide. Hurt explodes inside and I can't understand why.

They shatter me and I blink back tears. I try to turn cold, try to understand. My emotions have my head spinning. I hate him. I really hate him, but the words sting.

I look up at him and he's nothing but a stranger. A cold unfeeling savage that I want gone. Destroyed by my own hands.

"He's right, isn't he? You aren't real." The laughter bubbles out and spills over as I search his eyes. A part of me wants to poke at him, see if I'm right.

I try to think back, to really see the things that have happened. My vision clouds again and I look up to see he's closer. Only inches away.

"Anything Carlisle says to you is nothing but a lie!" he roars and the tips of his wings catch fire.

Masen goes rigid and his arms flex as he wings rise higher in my small room. I stand back, mesmerized by his beauty. How much like a demon he truly looks as he stands before me. I've never seen anything so stunning or deadly. It stuns me, how much I feel drawn to him, how right he feels when we touch, but I know it's a trick.

"How little you think of me." He turns his head to the side and I want to beat the smug smile off his face.

"You don't fucking care about me at all, do you?" I laugh hard and take a swing, missing him by an inch. "You wanted me insane. A prisoner."

"Very astute." He winks and the blood drains from my face.

I launch myself at him and knock us both into the corner.

My fists fly. I feel the skin break with every punch I throw. I smile as blood smears along his chest.

I scream but he stands very still, laughing at me, fueling me.

"Are you having fun hurting yourself?" He wipes my blood off his face with his thumb and touches it to his lips, tasting me.

"Shut up!" I scream and punch. I kick and I hate. I cry.

I feel hands on me, wrapping around my waist and pulling me off him. He waves as they hold me down, touching a single finger to his lips. I try to break free, to reach him again as he laughs at me.

"I'll kill you!" I try to kick free. Nothing matters but hurting him, but they hold me tighter.

"And I'll enjoy every second of you trying." He blows me a kiss, but stiffens as hands squeeze against me tighter.

His jaw sets and his eyes flash red when I feel something pinch my hip.

I don't mean to say his name, or to beg for help. The black that runs at the edge of my vision scares me and all I see are the flames and the shadows. The creatures and their clawed hands. Their hollow eyes and soundless screams.

I try to fight it, to fight them, but it's too much.

The last thing I see is Masen's dangerous smile as the room fades and I'm falling.

* * *

I curl into a tight ball on the floor, clutching at my chest as silent tears fall down my cheeks.

I feel so out of control, so lost. Nothing makes sense and everything hurts. My heart, my head. My soul.

I failed Charlie. I failed myself. All I think―all I see―is what I've done. What I've caused.

I lay and let it all consume me. My hate for Masen, my love for Charlie. The hurt and anger for all I've done. All I've let Masen do to me. I've tried to be strong, to hold it in, to let it fester and pray it goes away, but my control slips.

It knocks me on my ass and grips at my skin.

_I'm sorry,_ I think as Charlie's bloodied body plays over and over in my mind. I grab at the soft floor and for a moment I wonder if it will swallow me. If it will take me away and punish me for everything.

"And let you be so lucky?" Masen's voice surrounds me, but I refuse to move, to acknowledge him. It touches my flesh, wrapping itself around every nerve.

It's too smooth. Too cocky.

"You've been in here for hours." His finger slides up my leg, tracing patterns in my calf. "Sleeping and moaning about how cruel I am."

"Please just go." I close my eyes and try to fall back asleep.

"And let you wallow in self pity?" His palm is on my thigh and I want to scream, but I can't move. "I missed you. Did you not miss me?"

"Masen I'm exhausted," I sigh, but I know he's smiling down at me. He enjoys my discomfort, my pain. It's so evident when he looks at me. That cold stare I mistook for something more.

"Whose fault is that?" He rubs up and down my leg and the tingle that follows makes me hate him even more. "Never bring a knife to gun fight, Bella. You'll always lose."

I concentrate on the wall in front of me. I remember the white, the lines, the harsh bright light that reflects against it. I don't stop. I only stare.

I don't think about Masen. I let my mind block him. I think about my mom. Her smiling face as I draw her a picture. The way she smelled. Her voice when she sang me to sleep. And then I see him. Standing in the yard and pushing me on my swing. How gentle he was, how soft his voice sounded in my ear before I would drift off to sleep. His promises of protected and his eyes.

"You're going to ignore me?" I laugh silently at the pout in his voice. "You'll regret that."

"Masen…" I start but a shiver runs down my spine and I feel his hot breath on my neck.

"I promise you, Bella." He brushes the hair off my neck and his lips press against my skin. A shock runs through my blood and slams into my heart.

"Don't." I roll away from him and turn, looking right into his green eyes. "Stop touching me. I don't know what you're doing when you touch me, but stop."

His eyes narrow and he smiles. "It's happening already then."

"Do you see what you're doing to me? Do you want me broken?" I ignore him, tired of his games. Tired of being confused and feeling used.

"Yes," he says. "You're gorgeous when you break."

I let the tears fall so he can see. I want him to know he's done this. That he's shattered my mind and hardened my heart. That I'm human.

"I know what you are. I created you." He moves to touch my face, but I slap his hand away.

"I said don't."

"And yet your body craves it." He rocks on his heels and sits against the corner of the small room. "Did you know if I was to touch any other human they would die? My touch is lethal to them. But with you...it burns your skin and opens you up to me. I take a little piece of you each time we touch, but you take a piece of me as well, Bella. Remember that."

"I don't want you."

"You will."

I take him in for a moment. He's dressed in black from head to toe, just like always, but against the white he looks so much more evil. Sinister.

His hair is mess and his tattoos peek from every opening of his shirt. They look so incredible against his skin and I wonder what he looked like before them. If he would be just as appealing.

Would I want him just as bad?

He looks like the devil. Like the demon I know he is. Silver tongued and charming.

He's a beautiful monster that haunts me. He's sin and sweet. Smoke and leather. And I die a little inside just taking him in.

"Give in to me, Bella. Let me be yours," he says, but his lips don't move. "Stop fighting me."

"No." I shake my head but, I can't stop looking at him. It's mesmerizing, the way he looks at me. The possessiveness behind those green eyes. He terrifies me, yet he's right.

I crave him.

"Don't come back, Masen. Don't come near me again. I only hurt people when you do. Leave me alone." The lies are sour on my tongue. How could I _want _a monster? Why?

"You want me angry don't you?" My stomach tightens at the intensity of his eyes as they darken on me.

I say nothing, afraid I might break. I let the anger consume me once more. I let it boil and rise.

"Go away." I say the words slowly, letting them drip with the madness that I feel.

Masen shifts, crossing his legs. I sit up, ready for another fight.

"I can be everything you need. Everything you want." He leans forward and I see the cruelty in his eyes. "I can also be your worst nightmare. You want to play games? Let's play."

I move to hit him again, but the door to my room opens and Masen growls.

"Isabella." Carlisle's green eyes meet mine and I feel like I can breathe again.

Carlisle stands in the opening and I smile when I look back at Masen. I don't care if it hurts him. I want it to. I want him to see he doesn't control me, that my defiance by associating with Carlisle is just the beginning.

"Come on. We should talk."

"Bella." Masen growls next to me, but I ignore him and take Carlisle's outstretched hand.

The shock that runs up my arm at his touch is alarming, but I say nothing. When I look back Masen is standing there, his eyes deadly and his fists clenched.

"This isn't over." His eyes dark, his face twisted with unrestrained anger as he fades into a dark smoke that seeps into the walls.

* * *

"How are you feeling?" Carlisle sits across from me. Glasses on his face and clipboard in his hand. "You were in that room for a very long time."

"Was I?" It only felt like minutes with Masen.

"Close to forty-eight hours."

I rock back in my seat, shocked. Whatever they gave me, knocked me out hard.

"You have court in a few weeks. We need to prepare for that." He opens a folder and I want so badly to look inside.

I suck in a breath, afraid. "Am I going to be charged with murder?"

"You think Charlie's dead? Where did you get that idea?"

I squeeze my eyes shut and choke back the bile that threatens to rise. It's then that I notice Masen. He waves at me as he moves away from the wall and between us.

"I just want to know."

"No, but there is the likelihood you will be here much longer than I believe you should be." His eyes are serious and I feel a tightening in my chest.

"What does that mean?"

"It means I don't think you're crazy, Isabella."

I laugh at him and squirm in my seat. "You're the only person who doesn't think that."

"I'll prove it. Give me time." His words sounds so sincere and his soft green eyes make me relax just a little.

I stare at him, unsure of what he's getting at. What he wants with me. Masen's words ring in my head, but I ignore them, wanting to hear Carlisle out. Wanting to trust someone. To believe not everyone is out to hurt me.

"Has anyone actually told you how your father is doing?"

I look straight ahead, as if I can see through Masen. "What?"

Masen shifts, turning away from me and I know he's watching Carlisle. His anger sends a perverse happiness through me. I know I've hit a button, that I've found what he hates. Screw him if he thinks he's the only one that can play games.

"Have you heard anything about his condition?"

"No. Alice says I have no right to that information and Angela doesn't know much else," I tell him.

"Alice can be a bit of a…"

"A bitch?" I ask, a small grin twisting my lips. I see Masen's back tense as he walks to the window and looks out.

"May I ask you some questions? I want to to help you, and I know I can, but I need to get to know you."

"Okay…"

"I promise when this is all over, I'll sit right here and we'll find out about Charlie together, okay?"

He asks about my childhood. About my time with Charlie and school. He wants to know about my mother. What I remember, what my favorite things about her were.

I give him short answers. I don't feel like talking, not really. I'd like to do nothing more than go back to my room and lay in the broken mess.

Instead, I keep my eyes on him, studying him, trying to figure out why Masen doesn't like him. What he ever could have done to him.

I remember the way his arms felt closing around me. How he made the shadows go away and how his lips felt on my temple. I remember thinking how much he looked like Masen. How he looked at me like Masen. So different from how he looks at me now.

Like he cares.

"You think I'm cruel?" I hear Masen whisper behind me and the smell of leather and smoke surrounds me. "Who do you think taught me?"

I ignore him, focusing solely on Carlisle's questions. I tell him about the birds, about my father.

"And you don't remember anything until you turned on the light?" He takes off his glasses and sits back in his chair. Everything about Carlisle is comfortable. How he moves, the way his hands fold in his lap. He looks so relaxed being in a room with a girl that has been deemed crazy.

"Angela was knocking on the door, and then I was covered in blood. I don't know what happened," I say, but I think I might.

"Does that happened to you often? Not remembering things or waking up in strange places?"

"A few times when I was younger I would wake up outside, or in my closet. Angela said she could hear me screaming those nights, but I don't remember why," I lie.

I remember eyes. Bright white and green. I remember black wings and a soft smile.

Mostly I remember my mother.

"And Angela is a good friend?" His pen hits the paper and I wonder what he's writing. If he thinks I'm just as insane as the others. If he's right.

"Yes." At least she was. Too many people have too many secrets now. None of them are real. Not even her. She's not even the person I believed her to be.

"But you've denied her visits?"

"I have my reasons." I think about her journal and even though I want answers, I don't think I can look at her right now.

I try to relax again as he takes more notes, but Masen's presence has me on edge.

"You were screaming in your room when Emmett found you," he says and I blanch.

"I don't know what came over me." I look down at my lap, trying not to let the anger in, but I hear Masen laugh behind me.

"Understandable. You've been through a lot. You aren't the first to break." The word break makes me grit my teeth. "You were saying a name. Do you remember?"

"No." I close my eyes and remember what it felt like to hit Masen. How much power I felt running through me then. How I wish I could have hurt him.

"Are you sure?" He raises a single eyebrow and I know he sees the lie.

"No."

"You're safe here, Isabella. Anything you say is private. Just between us. You can trust me." He leans closer and his eyes pin me. "I promise."

"Don't." Masen's boots drag the ground as he moves closer, but I sit straighter.

"I don't want to see him anymore." The words spill out and my heart pounds.

"See _who_?"

I say nothing, feeling very unsure of everything all of the sudden.

"Remember when I said I would believe you?" I nod. "I mean that. I will do everything in my power to help you. Will you let me?"

I chew on the inside of my cheek and study him. Carlisle doesn't look like a doctor. He looks like a God. Powerful and strong. He doesn't look like he belongs here at all. Or that I should trust him, but I do.

Even though everything about him screams threat, screams don't. I feel drawn to him. His smooth words and his calming smile.

His eyes aren't as harsh as Masen's, but they are his. That jade green that makes my stomach twist and flip. Even the tiny glimpse of black ink I see at his collar is just like Masen's.

"Is he here right now?" Carlisle breaks me from my musings.

"Yes." I feel Masen's fingers dig into my skin, but I don't move. I let the pain keep me grounded. I let it throb and I take away his power.

"He can't hurt you here. I'll protect you."

"But can you see him?" I try not to get my hopes up, but I want so badly for someone else to see him. To prove he's real.

"I'm sorry. I can't." Carlisle looks away and I want to scream.

"He's playing with you, Bella." Masen hisses in my ear.

"But I _do _believe you," he says and moves closer to me. "Let me prove it."

Carlisle is so close, closer than I want, but something about him makes me inch forward. It makes me want to talk. To tell him the things I hide. To show him. To force him to see and prove I'm not what he thinks.

"I just want you to make him go away. I want to be normal again," I tell him and wipe at my cheeks, trying to hide my tears. "Please."

"You'll beg him? Him?" Masen laughs and moves around me, blocking Carlisle. "You have no idea the type of monster you're about to unleash, Bella. Ignore me all you want, but you'll wish for the things I used to do to you if keep this up."

"Let's make that call and then I'll do everything in my power to help you get rid of him." Carlisle moves around his desk and I listen as he talks to nurses and doctors.

I smile and tears spill over my face as he tells me Charlie is alive. He's alive and Masen lied. His heart still beats and once again Masen played me.

Masen turns and his eyes bore into me. He seems thoughtful and angry at the same time. Like he's trying to solve some puzzle, or unlock more secrets. Like he knows what I'm about to do.

I allow myself to glance at him for just a moment. I want his reaction. I want his pain.

"Thank you." I stand and do something I know I'll regret.

I hug Carlisle.

**Welp. **

**Let me know what you think? Want to murder Masen now, or Bella?**


End file.
